By ANNE GIBSON
A Takapuna mansion has sold for $8.3 million over the internet in what is thought to be a national record for a house sale.
The renovated villa on Gibbons Rd, once part of the grounds of an exclusive private Anglican girls boarding school, was sold to a 34-year-old Aucklander from the North Shore, now working in the United States computer industry.
But few people know anything about the buyer, David Hughes, and those who do were not saying much last night.
The four-bedroom house sits on 5214 sq m or 1 1/4 acres of prime Takapuna beachfront land.
It was sold by Oenone Bidwill, former wife of multimillionaire Auckland entrepreneur and investor Charles Bidwill and sister of John Spencer - for many years the country's richest man.
The sale, finalised last week, appears to have set a record in New Zealand, according to the agent who sold it, Brian Guy of Premium Real Estate, in Takapuna.
It beats the $6.75 million paid for 139 Arney Rd in Remuera last year and the $8 million paid for merchant banker David Richwhite's Remuera Rd house in 1997. The Arney Rd home was sold by manufacturing entrepreneurs Bill and Diane Foreman, again over the internet, to another New Zealander, also living in California and also working in the computer industry.
The sale of 12 Gibbons Rd was struck just before Christmas, and Mr Hughes paid more than $500,000 as a deposit. The deal was settled on January 18.
Mr Guy said Mr Hughes and his wife planned to move to New Zealand eventually, but were still based in the US.
Sources said Mr Hughes had no immediate plans to live in the house and might eventually build a new house on the site.
Bayley's David Rainbow, one of Auckland's top residential agents, said he thought the Takapuna house had set a national record. Real Estate Institute statistics chief Gary Moverley agreed: "I can't think of any bigger sales."
But Mr Rainbow said other houses in Auckland would be worth more now, including Doug and Barbara Myers' Remuera house, and Paul Huljich's Kohimarama mansion.
David Phillips of Pacer Kerridge offered $8 million for Florence Court in Epsom in the 1980s, but lost his $1 million deposit to owner Lalla Seabrook after failing to complete the deal. The Sultan of Brunei bought Waimanu in Herne Bay for $6.8 million in 1995.
The latest Takapuna sale is part of a trend on the North Shore. Last year, Premium sold three $3 million-plus houses, four for $2 million-plus and 35 for $1 million-plus. Prices paid for beachfront houses in particular have skyrocketed.
The Takapuna house was once known as Parker House and was the boarding house, kitchen and dining room for private school St Anne's from 1932 to 1971. Before that it was a bach.
The school was run for many years by two sisters, Fifi Wyn-Williams, who owned it, and Frances Gifford, the headmistress.
Pupils played hockey on the beach but Parker House was a slightly dilapidated villa in need of repiling and renovation.
When Mrs Bidwill bought the house about 20 years ago, she restored it, adding a top gable, which has a main bedroom and ensuite looking out through an old pohutukawa to Rangitoto.
The home, also near the Blomfield Spa beach entrance, has a 25m heated outdoor pool, a long tree-lined driveway and high-security features.
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