- Elizabeth Hagans is selling her Auckland mansion to move closer to her business interests in Wellington.
- The seven-bedroom home in Whitford features a guest house, wine cellar, and helicopter landing area.
- Bayleys’ Angela Rudling expects the property to sell for more than $15m.
A wealthy American businesswoman based in New Zealand has put her multi-million-dollar Auckland mansion on the market for sale.
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Elizabeth Hagans, who has made sizeable investments in several high-profile Kiwi companies and funds, including Ice Angels and Sir Stephen Tindall’s K1W1, told OneRoof she was selling up to move closer to her business interests in Wellington.
Her seven-bedroom luxury home at 42 Porterfield Road, in Whitford, on Auckland’s rural fringe, is looking for buyers with more than $15 million to spend.
Hagans bought the 2.55ha estate with her late husband Roger for $7.85m in 2012. She told OneRoof that they had fallen in love with New Zealand and were looking for a place to live.
The owner called on American interior designer Barbara Westbrook to overhaul the interior. Photo / Supplied
The property overlooks the water, with Rangitoto in the background. Photo / Supplied
“We travelled from the Bay of Islands to Dunedin, looking for a place to settle and we finally stumbled on this house,” she said.
“It was so beautifully built, overlooking the bay and Rangitoto. It was a very masculine house, but I could envision things and shift the inside of the house.”
The Hagans called their American interior designer, Barbara Westbrook, to bring their vision to life. Westbrook had worked on the couple’s US home, a traditional mansion in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and her work has appeared in numerous books and magazines.
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The designer called the home “Aspen on steroids”. She and her team set to work removing the heavy stone and wood details and updating the interiors over an 18-month period.
The couple used the holiday house for extended family gatherings during their annual visits to New Zealand, but Hagans now adds regular quarterly visits to manage her business interests in New Zealand.
She told OneRoof the house was set up for hosting regular crowds, with a three-bedroom guest house on the estate rented out to the couple who manage the property.
The interior designer removed some of the stone and heavy wood to create a summer house for extended family. Photo / Supplied
Landscaping included both formal and informal moods for the outdoor living. Photo / Supplied
As well as shifting her focus to Wellington, Hagans was keen to downsize since her husband’s death in 2022. “What was once a full and vibrant house is now a big rambling house, I need to downsize,” she said.
“It’s time for a new family to come in here and enjoy it the way we used to enjoy it.”
Hagans has tapped the same agent who sold them the house 13 years ago to find a new owner. Bayleys’ Angela Rudling, who is marketing the home with colleague Michael Chi, told OneRoof she expected it to sell for much more than its RV of $9.8m.
“We’re marketing it globally with a price expectation of $15m. It is unsurpassed quality construction, with an amazingly private position. It is unique in the outer Auckland area,” she told OneRoof.
She said that the property, which was two paddocks away from the waterfront, was unlikely to be built out.
“Under the current council planning rules for Whitford, it is highly unlikely that anything could be built there,” she said.
In her listing, Rudling and Chi note that the property has a helicopter landing area available and is just a 40-minute drive from Auckland Airport. The agents also highlight the 2000-bottle wine cellar, the garaging for four cars and the flower garden and orchards.
Two years ago, Rudling brokered the $20m sale of another Whitford estate, and got more than $26m for a clifftop mansion in Mellons Bay.
- 42 Porterfield Road, Whitford, Auckland, is for sale, tender closing March 18
