It's still a building site, but embattled ex-Hanover boss Mark Hotchin's Paritai Drive mansion may top this week's rankings of the country's most expensive homes.
The Auckland Council will post triennial valuations for the entire Supercity online on Tuesday. And, on a suburb-by-suburb comparison, Hotchin is likely to beat billionaire Graeme Hart to claim the highest-priced house.
The present titleholder - the Chrisco mansion on its 24.3ha estate in Coatesville - could drop in price. The house, built for Chrisco hamper company founders Richard and Ruth Bradley, was valued at $23.3 million in 2007. But average prices in the area have dropped 4.67 per cent, the council says, which would knock the Chrisco house down to about $22.2 million.
Meanwhile, Hart's Glendowie home and Hotchin's Orakei house will reap the benefits of fast-rising values. And since the July 2008 council valuations, Hotchin has combined three properties into one. He has half-built a vast, sprawling mansion looking out over Waitemata Harbour. In court this year, he revealed he and a trust with which he is associated had invested $37.5m in buying and developing the property - which could give it a No 1 placing of more than $30m in this week's valuations.
This may be only small consolation to Hotchin: the High Court has frozen his assets, pending any hearings into Hanover investors' civil claims.
