KEY POINTS:
A stately Auckland mansion formerly owned by the Sultan of Brunei has had its price tag slashed by $1 million.
Wairangi in Herne Bay has been languishing on the market since 2005 but now its price has been cut from $10 million to $9 million to pull buyers.
The place could also be the country's most expensive potential interior renovation project.
Any buyer who does emerge might end up paying $10 million anyway because an extra $1 million could be needed to transform the home's somewhat florid interior, decorated to the tastes of one of the world's richest men. The stately Wairangi was one of the multibillionaire Sultan of Brunei's $35 million clutch of mansions.
In 2005, agent Graham Wall listed the 493sq m house, with 10 other Herne Bay properties Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah had amassed in the 1990s.
The 60-year-old Sultan sold all the houses to low-profile businessman Gary Lane, who was really after the nearby Waimanu in Stack St.
Mr Lane immediately put most of the properties back on the market.
He bought Wairangi with all its furniture and has since left it largely untouched.
For the past few months, Patrick McCarthy at Bayleys has been trying to get $9 million and admits the interior is not to New Zealanders' taste.
"It has a very European hotel feeling, very formal, not how a lot of New Zealanders would live," he said. "People could spend another $1 million on it, although it's a fantastic structure. It will just take some time to sell."
Gold yarn is threaded through the mansion's dense custom-made carpets specially manufactured in Dubai.
Ornate marble fireplaces, servants' quarters, metres of lavish drapes hanging in swags under thick pelmets, gold-framed mirrors, stands of artificial flowers and heavy stately furniture are just some of the features which a buyer might want to eradicate.
Other agents say the dated kitchen does little to enhance the property when so much money is being asked.
The section is more than a quarter-acre, at 1922sq m.
The clifftop house overlooking the harbour has a 20m in-ground pool with Victorian-style changing sheds.
Mr McCarthy said the market for $9 million houses was limited but one nearby property had fetched more than $8 million recently. The furniture could be bought with the house for anyone keen to live like a sultan.
Rooms with a view
* House at 8 Wairangi St, a Herne Bay cul-de-sac.
* It faces Watchman Island and the Chelsea sugar refinery.
* It has been vacant since 2005.
