A wealthy American entrepreneur who boasts one world's finest car collections has sold his Auckland mansion estate for $20 million, OneRoof can reveal.
Richard Griot, who made his fortune with a mail-order garage supply business in the US, scored an on-paper profit of more than $11m from the sale of the 7.4 ha lifestyle block in Whitford.
The deal was completed in January, with the settled price now appearing in the records.
Griot had required Overseas Investment Office approval when he bought the Strathfield Lane property in 2011 for $8.7m. He had used the five-bedroom mansion as a holiday home, but since Covid had been unable to use it as much and so had decided to sell.
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The property was listed with Ollie and Graham Wall, of Wall Real Estate, with the buyer brought to the deal by Bayleys agents Angela Rudling and Michael Chi, who had sold the house to Griot in 2011.
Griot had brought in his own designers to upgrade the 900sqm American-style brick mansion. The estate included a pavilion house for entertaining added near the main house. The immaculate 200m lawn stretched down to the water, and the grounds included a swimming pool, tennis court, a man-made lake, water features and immaculately clipped lawns.
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Top of the renovations list was a 10-car garage for Griot, who owns an eyewatering collection of some of the rarest McLaren cars, including Bruce McLaren’s M6A Can-Am car. His business is a high-end catalogue company selling power tools and products to fit out a dream garage, and his garage at home is an immaculately fitted out car heaven of nearly 1440 sqm in a converted factory.
“The whole house, everything, was absolutely immaculate, we’ve never seen anything like it,” said Ollie Wall.
The on Strathfield Lane, Whitford, was completely refurbished to add a pavilion house, 10 car garaging and new interior decoration. Photo / Supplied
The Whitford house sits on more than 7.4ha and overlooks the water. Photo / Supplied
“Buyers at the moment want absolutely finished properties, done to the highest quality. And there are still plenty of buyers for these places. There are not enough of them for sale.”
Wall said that many of his top end buyers did not have upper budget limits.
“These are people with generational wealth, they know that now is not a bad time to spend because they’ll get more bang for their buck. They’ll have these homes for 30 years or more.”
Rudling and Chi are bound by strict confidentiality contracts, but said that their overseas-based buyer had only been looking for holiday home around Whitford for a week. When they knew the property was coming to market, they acted swiftly.
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