Sir Ed's home unwanted by buyer

Terry Jarvis (L) and Graham Wall. In March Jarvis denied purchasing the historic home from the Hillary family. Photo / Herald on Sunday

The multi-millionaire owner of Sir Edmund Hillary's home has been revealed - and the house is facing demolition unless it can be relocated from its existing site.

Sky Television co-founder and former New Zealand cricketer Terry Jarvis, who lives next door to the Hillary house, confirmed he was the mystery buyer who paid $1.9 million for the home in March. He is planning to remove it for more garden area.

>>March 29: Terry Jarvis insists he is not the buyer

Jarvis and an associate, real estate guru Graham Wall, are in discussions with Auckland Museum and mountaineer Graeme Dingle about the possibility of relocating the house from its existing Remuera site.

The house was built by Sir Ed in 1956 - three years after he conquered Everest - and has sweeping views of Waitemata Harbour, but most of its $1.5 million value lies in the land.

Jarvis had offered to gift it to the Hillary family for relocation, but they had said no. Relocating the home is a logistical nightmare and expensive, believed to be around $80,000.

"The house really doesn't have many redeeming features that were worth saving, except the study where Sir Ed did most of his work and a couple of other small areas," said Jarvis, who said he wanted to find an "elegant solution".

"I'm not sure that saving the whole house would have any benefit. That's why I think the museum [could take] it on and fill parts of the house with the [Hillary] memorabilia they have."

Jarvis initially denied he was the purchaser and said he was a private person who liked to be "kept under the radar". His personal fortune was valued at $80 million on last year's NBR Rich List.

"I thought we could place the house somewhere and that would be the end of the story.

"I thought the house might have some significance, but it didn't matter who owned it.

"It was right on our boundary, so it suited us and we were nervous what might have been built there. We were determined to get control of the site.

"I think we will turn it into a garden probably. I have no plans to subdivide it or do anything like that."

Jarvis said he would wait "a reasonable time" for the museum and Dingle to come back to him.

Dingle said he wanted to preserve the house and was this weekend scoping its possible new site, owned by his Project K Foundation for Youth Development organisation at the northern end of Kaipara Harbour. "The house has so many good memories for us - meetings with Ed, parties with Ed, and times with the family have been very special."

He said he needed to think about the logistics and affordability of the possible relocation and "that we are not being completely stupid".

"We'd quite like to think it would be available for the family and friends of Ed to come and stay."

Museum chairman William Randall, who lives in the neighbourhood, said he had initial discussions with Wall and expected to raise it with the museum this week.

"A large part of the attraction is the study and the furniture. The whole house couldn't go in the museum."

Wall said it was possible that the mountaineering community might want the house relocated. Dingle was preparing a report.

"He was working on a theory of having it on some land as some sort of retreat."

Wall said the house was being treated "like a sentimental icon by the Herald on Sunday but no one else at this stage".

Jarvis said he had no intention of removing a huge Himalayan pine - Sir Ed planted it on the site in the 1950s - although he said there was another tree "we would like to take down or prune back".

In March, Sir Ed's daughter Sarah Hillary said she would be sad if the house was knocked down. "I would prefer if someone lived there happily but I can't control what happens."

As well as his business acumen, Jarvis was also highly regarded as a top-class cricketer.

He played 13 tests for New Zealand, including a 387-run opening stand with Glenn Turner against the West Indies in Guyana in 1972.