Anger over stalled Hotchin mansion

Amanda and Mark Hotchin's $30 million development has riled neighbours. Photo / Richard Robinson

Angry neighbours say Hanover Finance director Mark Hotchin's $30 million mansion - where construction is now stalled - has wiped hundreds of thousands of dollars off their own property values and wrecked their views of Waitemata Harbour.

Grahame and Jo Breed have spent $50,000 extending their deck to compensate for lost sea views from their Tuhaere St home, located behind the sprawling Hotchin property on Paritai Drive in Orakei.

Mr Breed did not put a cash value on the views he had lost, but said a neighbour had lost even more of his views, wiping $1 million off the $3.2 million capital value of his house. Other Tuhaere St houses had also lost valuable sea views.

Paritai Drive and the streets immediately behind it are some of the most valuable housing real estate in the country, particularly homes with good sea views.

Yesterday, the Breeds were shedding no tears for Mr Hotchin, who was reportedly on holiday in Hawaii when work on his sprawling property stopped at lunchtime on Friday.

Mr Breed said the property, about 80 per cent complete, had become a target, with people throwing eggs over its high wall from a public walkway.

Subcontractor Aaron Kesby told the Herald he had been "squared up" for remedial steel work done six months ago but heard contractors were walking off the job for not being paid.

Mr Hotchin could not be reached for comment about unpaid bills, but a Hotchin spokesman, Mark Stevenson, told a Sunday newspaper that "everyone has been paid up" but "Mark has asked me to slow things down and so I have".

The Breeds said many neighbours thought the house was disgraceful.

"It's a monument to wealth. There are lots of big houses around Paritai Drive, but it is out of keeping with the rest of the area," Mrs Breed said.

Another local couple, out walking, were similarly unimpressed.

Mr Breed, a former Auckland City councillor and planning committee chairman, is furious at the council for giving Mr Hotchin about 21 dispensations without consulting affected neighbours.

In December, the Herald reported that the house exceeded the maximum building coverage control by 74 per cent and the area for permeable grass and garden by 83 per cent.

Council planners said the effects of the building coverage and landscaped permeable surface were minor and nil respectively.

Mr Hotchin reportedly paid $18 million for 4322sq m made up of three properties at 56 and 58 Paritai Drive and 4 Huriaro Place.

He then set about building a family home with seven bedrooms, theatre, games room, garaging for 12 cars, car wash, two swimming pools and a tennis court.

The development has also upset retired couple Rowland and Marvyn Crone, who invested $10,000 in Hanover and several hundred thousand more in other failed finance firms.

Last night, Mrs Crone said the Hotchin property should be taken over by someone suitable and sold, with the proceeds going back to investors.

This is not the first time Mr Hotchin has felt Hanover investor anger over the mansion. At a meeting at Alexandra Park - where he was trying to convince Hanover investors to accept a buyout by finance company Allied Farmers - one irate investor yelled, "Sell your blimmin million-dollar house."

Jamie Power, whose company Power Plasterers has been working at the property, said he did not know the full story of what was happening and was currently working on another job.

"If the job continues, then we want to keep on doing it. I don't want to say anything that is going to jeopardise our position," he said.

Another subcontractor, landscape designer Ron Dykman, said the gates were shut on Friday at lunchtime and "some of us are bitterly unhappy".

Mr Dykman said he had been paid but had no idea when work would resume: "[I] won't be making any money there this week".

Mr Hotchin is trying to sell his large home at 16 Bridgewater Rd, Parnell, which has a pool and tennis court, enormous old trees and stands on more than 1000sq m. Quotable Value shows he paid $2.3 million for it in 1999. Its current rateable value is $5.3 million.

On Waiheke, Mr Hotchin has a farm at Boatshed Bay. He reportedly paid $13.85 million for the 4ha gully block, which has a secluded beach.