‘All offers considered’: $22m island’s cut-price sale
“All offers seriously considered,” says the estate agent selling the stunning Far North island and luxury home once listed with a $22 million price tag.
It’s a move which opens up a range of possibilities for Motukawaiti, the only privately owned island among the Cavalli group.
Among those — as suggested by owner Jun Zhang — is a possible return to the people of Nga¯ ti Kura, who had the island slip from their control in 1912 amid what historian Anthony Patete called a “wave of alienations of leasing and sales” in the area.
Zhang took control of Motukawaiti almost 100 years later as settlement for a loan default by the previous owner, to whom he had lent the money to purchase it.
That was in 2016. Since then, Zhang has returned to China and since 2019, the island and its home have sat empty, while estate agent James Law has tried to find a buyer who can meet its $22m price tag. That purchase price is now gone.
Laws told the Herald on Sunday the latest agreement to buy Motukawaiti had fallen through.
“The vendor has asked the public to ignore the previous price tags of $22m or $40m or so.”
Laws said the owner was now taking bids on the island. Tenders close May 28.
The new bid to sell the island comes with an acknowledgement of the interest from Nga¯ ti Kura, which has been lobbying the Government to step in and purchase the island.
Motukawaiti has been through this dance before. One owner tried for almost 20 years between the 1960s and 1980s to have the Crown buy the island and put it into public ownership.
That owner, Peter Nisbett, of Moerewa, offered two-thirds of the island to the Crown for $100,000 in 1973. He later increased the offer to cover the whole island, rejecting private offers while the Crown dithered, eventually selling it privately in the late 1980s even as the other Cavalli Islands were brought into public ownership. Nga¯ ti Kura kauma¯ tua Dover Samuels recently lobbied Government Ministers Andrew Little (Treaty Settlements) and Kelvin Davis (Crown-Ma¯ ori Relations) about returning the island to the hapu¯ . He said there was a claim before the Waitangi Tribunal that sought to challenge the original sale of the island. “The history of the island gives rise to very strong evidence that the Crown accept responsibility for its alienation. Until they come back saying they are going to challenge that, we have evidence [supporting] a significant Treaty claim . . . that would require the Crown to purchase it.”
Samuels said the hapu¯ would like to buy the island, short-cutting the Treaty process, but doing so would require significant fundraising. “We’re not in a position to purchase it. How about they surprise us?”
Earlier this year, the Herald revealed the luxury home on the island had been abandoned for two years. It had been repeatedly invaded, lived and partied in, and high-end electronics taken.