Neglected house talk of posh street

Number 9 Paritai Drive. Photo / Herald on Sunday

An abandoned property is raising eyebrows on one of Auckland's poshest street.

In contrast to its immaculate neighbours, the large house at 9 Paritai Drive is dilapidated and the garden overgrown. Neighbours, who include some of New Zealand's richest people, say the house has been vacant for at least 10 years and are perplexed as to why its owner is not capitalising on the property's $1.7 million value.

The Orakei property is owned by Douglas Lawrance McIntyre, who lives in nearby Meadowbank. Neighbours believe he works as a pilot.

When contacted by the Herald on Sunday, McIntyre said "there's nothing to talk about, sweetheart" and hung up.

According to the 2008 electoral roll, a professional rugby player called Paul Stowers is resident at 9 Paritai Drive.

But neighbours are adamant no one has lived there for as long as they can remember.

The property's high-profile next-door neighbours, who asked not to be named, said police had been called to the property several times to deal with squatters. At one point emergency services were called after a fire was started.

Multimillionaire property investor Jimmy Kirkpatrick and his wife Gilda lived at number 5 before moving into their "wedding cake" mansion at number 90.

Gilda Kirkpatrick said the owners of the dilapidated home "let it go for a while but then they started cleaning it up every couple of months".