INL chief buys $4m house

By ANNE GIBSON property editor

High-flying News Corp executive Tom Mockridge and wife Jacquie have paid $4 million for a spectacular, award-winning North Shore house.

The Mockridges have bought a modern, low-lying, glass-fronted house in Devonport, signalling that Mr Mockridge is settling in Auckland to hold tighter reins over loss-making Sky TV.

Mr Mockridge, aged 45, was appointed chief executive of Independent Newspapers (INL) in March. The company's headquarters are in Wellington. He also heads the board of pay television operator Sky, following the sudden departure of co-founder Craig Heatley this year. INL has a controlling shareholding in the Auckland-based Sky.

The purchase of the exclusive Auckland house has added fuel to speculation about the future direction of INL, including plans to relaunch the ill-fated Auckland Star, initially as a weekly, and to expand the television operation.

Analysts saw the appointment of a man with Mr Mockridge's background and experience as a signal that he could stitch INL together with Sky TV and then integrate Sky into Mr Murdoch's Sky Global Networks.

The sudden death of INL chief Mike Robson last year resulted in Rick Neville being appointed managing director of publishing for INL. The clear signal from Rupert Murdoch's News Corp was that Mr Neville would run the INL empire, while Mr Mockridge would run Sky.

The contemporary waterfront house with panoramic harbour views towards Auckland's CBD won a national architecture award in 1998 for Devonport-based architect Geoff Richards, who was convenor of the judging panel for this year's national architecture awards.

The minimalist two-bedroom house has a one-bedroom apartment above a garage and a heated outdoor lap pool. The house, which has concrete floors and walls, sits on a huge 2000 sq m section of beachfront land, amounting to about half an acre.

Quotable Value lists the house as being worth only $450,000 but the seaside section as being worth $1.9 million, giving a total estimate of the property's capital value at just $2.4 million.

But those close to the deal said this was well out of sync with the property's true value.

Mr Mockridge, former head of Australia's Foxtel television, started his journalism career in 1977 at the Taranaki Daily News, before joining the Sydney Morning Herald in 1980, then going on to work for Australian federal Treasurer Paul Keating.

In the early 1990s, he worked for Murdoch's News Ltd team in implementing agreements to form Foxtel. He was appointed Foxtel's chief executive, then chief executive of a joint venture between Cable and Wireless Hong Kong Star TV.

He then led Hong Kong DTV, has been a News Ltd director since 1995, a Sky TV director since 1998 and an INL director since last year.

Real estate agent Tom Kane of Takapuna-based Premium Real Estate sold the property. The vendors were Wendy and Keith Gosling.

Mr Gosling was a founder of Auckland accounting firm Gosling Chapman, but left 15 years ago and is now an investor and businessman.

The Goslings have moved to a modern house in Ponsonby because, Mr Gosling says, all their family are on the city side of the bridge.

They were planning to keep the Stanley Point home until an approach from a real estate agent who had heard about their Ponsonby purchase, Mr Gosling says.

"He introduced Tom and Jacquie to us and they loved the house."

The Stanley Pt house is unique in that it is only one room wide, Mr Gosling says. This allows it to face north and enjoy all-day sun, as well as enjoying the waterfront panorama to the south.

"It was designed very specifically to my brief and the architect interpreted that. I wanted a minimalist, all-concrete, serene, quiet and peaceful home," he says.

The house was completed only three years ago and built by D.J. Armstrong, Mr Gosling says. It has two sheltered courtyards.

Neither Tom nor Jacquie Mockridge would comment on the new house yesterday.