All up, $28m for four mansions

By ANNE GIBSON

Four of the country's grandest mansions have sold for more than $28 million.

Christine and the late John Fernyhough's residence, at 282 Remuera Rd, sold to an undisclosed buyer for $8.4 million in March.

The Fernyhough house was shifted 8m to get the best of the harbour view.

The 93-year-old home was tipped to be the first residential property in New Zealand to fetch more than $10 million when it went on the market in 2001.

It is also the first to be marketed by Sotheby's International Realty, which specialises in promoting luxury properties.

The 0.4ha property has a swimming pool, a tennis court, century-old trees and an English country garden.

A large house nearby, at 298 Remuera Rd, sold late last year for $7.8 million.

Auckland businessman and bloodstock investor Robert Famularo, of Euroglass Systems, and his wife, Kerry, sold it through Barfoots agent Paul Barnao.



Millionaire Mercedes car dealer Colin Giltrap and his wife, Jennifer, have just entered a deal to sell their Herne Bay mansion for $7.2 million.

The two-house property, at 3 Wairangi St, is near the palatial Waimanu, bought by the Sultan of Brunei for $6.8 million in 1995.

A Takapuna mansion sold over the internet two years ago for $8.3 million, thought to be a record price for New Zealand.

In December, former Carter Holt Harvey chief executive Chris Liddell sold his house at 276 Remuera Rd through Rainbow for $4.9 million.



The Giltrap house was designed by award-winning architect Pete Bosley, inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright. The 900sq m home, just 10 minutes from the CBD on the water, is built in native timbers and schist.

The Weekend Australian featured the 2048sq m property in March when it was marketed by Bayleys as "the country's most expensive residential strip". It has a blue-tiled pool, a shell garden leading to the water's edge and a large office.

The Giltraps have bought two penthouse apartments atop Nigel McKenna's almost-finished Lighter Quay, a 40-unit block in the Viaduct Basin.

They were estimated by last year's National Business Review rich-list as having at least $215 million, gained from owning a string of luxury-car sales businesses, including Giltrap Prestige, a state-of-the-art luxury-car showroom in Grey Lynn.



Sales agent Graham Wall, of Coles Real Estate in Parnell, credits the unconditional sale of the Giltrap house to a Herald profile in October last year. He says it helped attract the buyers, European migrants with teenage children.

Last year Wall, then 51, decided on a career change and enrolled in a real estate sales course.

He had worked in advertising and marketing consultancy most of his life, but felt he would enjoy selling more, having briefly experienced the thrill of "making the sale" at Giltrap Motor Group Mercedes.

Yesterday, he estimated he had sold $10 million of real estate this month "and it's only the 13th".

But selling the Giltrap property and pocketing a commission of about $200,000 was his best deal yet.