Ex-pat's bach fetches $4m

The house on the Matakana coast built for pop stars Thom Bailey and Alannah Currie

A waterfront hideaway once owned by Thompson Twins pop stars Thom Bailey and Alannah Currie has sold for $4 million.

The Hollywood-style replica mansion at Millon Bay near Buckleton Beach on the Matakana coast north of Auckland was once filled with celebrities.

The rock stars developed the property about 1993. They had the three-level house with a turret designed to mimic grand waterfront villas harking back to the early 1900s.

In 1999, they sold their house on its 6.8ha site in Whitmore Rd for about $2 million.

It was bought by Alison Davies, an ex-pat interior designer based in London, who works under her maiden name, Alison Henry. She has sold it for $4 million, after putting it on the market without an adjoining block of land for $4.1 million.

An Auckland couple also bought the adjoining 1.4ha for $4 million.

Alison Davies had wanted her three young children to grow up with an understanding of the New Zealand way of life and culture, and used the house for holidays.

Allan Myers, of Barfoot & Thompson, said Alison Davies had improved the property with retaining walls and decks.

While she owned it, she also subdivided the land into two titles - the 1.4ha block and 6.8ha block with the main house, sold with three other structures: a boatshed with ramp, two-bedroom guest cottage and two-bedroom beach house.

Late last year, Mr Myers sold a Far North coastal headland with some of the most famous surf breaks in the country.

The 488ha property, which is near Ninety Mile Beach and was featured in the 1960s surfing movie Endless Summer, was expected to fetch up to $10 million.

In 2000, Mr Myers sold New Zealand businessman Doug Myers' share of a Tahitian island to a San Diego resident for US$3 million ($4.4 million).