Chateau furnishings available to highest bidder

Some of the opulent furnishings from the North Shore mansion are up for auction, including this " circular dining table. Photo / File

One of the country's most prestigious properties is believed to have sold - and now its luxurious interiors are up for grabs.

The fortress-style North Shore mansion is known as the Chateau en bord de mer. It boasts five bedrooms, nine bathrooms and garaging for eight vehicles and sits in exclusive Clifton Rd in the Auckland suburb of Takapuna. The property is believed to have sold in October last year.

It has a CV of $16.5 million but was marketed for around $35 million, just a few million short of the most expensive property ever sold in New Zealand.

The country's priciest residential sale was a seven-bedroom mansion on exclusive Paritai Drive. Partly financed by former Hanover Finance director Mark Hotchin, the house sold to businessman Deyi Shi for $39 million in November 2013, but was estimated to have cost $43 million to build.

Chateau en bord de mer, which sold in October last year, boasts five bedrooms, nine bathrooms and garaging for eight vehicles. Photo / File

The 1730 sq m Takapuna house, which is more than eight times the size of a normal large house and sits on nearly half a hectare of land, was owned by Cameron and Tracey Gregory.

Mr Gregory owned a third of glass supplier Metro GlassTech, which was sold for $366 million in 2006.

The executive waterfront home, designed by Greg Noble, also has a swimming pool, cabana, three hidden panic rooms and a Westpac Bank-rated safe room.

It is made of solid concrete block with Oamaru solid stone cladding and columns, and has an English slate tiled roof.

The property was marketed by David Rainbow at Bayleys Real Estate as "arguably the finest private residence in New Zealand".

Mr Rainbow would not confirm the sale when contacted by the Herald last night.

However, thousands of dollars of its furnishings belonging to the Gregorys will go under the hammer on June 30.

Mossgreen-Webb will auction off 73 lots of fine 20th Century furniture and a range of decorative arts.

A "spectacular" circular dining table is expected to reach the highest price, with an estimated sale tag of $5000 to $7000.

Several other items are estimated to fetch several thousand dollars, including two matching Venetian style mirrors, two large hand-knotted carpets, two wing-backed armchairs and a refectory table in solid limed oak.

A Mossgreen-Webb spokeswoman said there had already been considerable interest in the items, which are open for viewing at the company's Parnell premises from Saturday.