Lie of the land
The gated community has rolling hills, a private lake, and spectacular views over the Southern Alps.
What it doesn’t have is people – which is why the Overseas Investment Office (OIO) has stepped in and forced its foreign owner to sell.
Using a rarely invoked power, the OIO has required the estate’s owners to give up their land because they did not meet the terms of the agreement.
It is part of a crackdown by the agency and its new enforcement team, which monitors the hundreds of wealthy foreign investors who own sensitive land in New Zealand.
The planned gated community is owned by Serge and Lilian D’elia, American investors based in Wyoming. Serge co-founded the international shoe company Vans in 1966, and was once its vice-president. When the company was sold in 1988, he made $19 million, according to court documents.
The D’elias first bought into the estate in 2005, buying two of 16 lots in what was then known as Tui Creek. After Tui Creek went into receivership, the D’elias bought the rest of the estate for $1.2m in 2009, with the OIO’s permission.
The OIO requires any foreign buyer of sensitive land to meet certain criteria. In particular, they must be ‘‘of good character’’ and provide ‘‘substantial and identifiable benefit’’ to New Zealand. The deal required the D’elias, who have New Zealand residency, to finish the development, citing the economic benefit to the country.
They built a large house for A German medical supplies millionaire is having to sell his 40ha block at Cust, in North Canterbury, after he failed to set up the outdoor pursuits business he proposed.
Werner Braun, who lives in Switzerland with his Canadian wife and two children, bought the block for more than $1 million in 2009 through his company Canres Ltd.
The Overseas Investment Office (OIO) approved the deal on the condition the company set up a sports lodge business on the site by April last year. The development did not eventuate so the OIO themselves and a model show home, but nearly a decade on, no other sites have been sold. The large estate is effectively empty, largely due to a delay in getting resource consents and a lack of buyer interest.
‘‘Originally, the D’elias stated that they intended the development to take approximately six years,’’ OIO deputy chief executive Lisa Barrett says. ‘‘In late 2015, it has ordered Braun to sell the property.
The lodge was to have provided accommodation and pursuits for tourists wanting outdoor activities, including guided fishing and guided horse riding and trekking.
The OIO was persuaded the development would provide jobs, new product, competition and additional investment.
Stuff understands Canres planted a shelter belt on the property and also built a driveway to the lodge site. At one stage Braun was hoping to move to New Zealand and have his two children schooled in Christchurch.
The property is described as ‘‘attractive bare land with outstanding views, adjacent to the Ashley River with numerous became apparent . . . that Tui Estate was not going to successfully fulfil its consent obligations.’’
The estate is now on the market.
A director of the development and the couple’s New Zealand representative, Barry Hopkinson, says every effort was made to make the development happen.
They produced lavish brochures, made a website, and ran newspaper advertisements, but struggled to gather interest.
‘‘The plan was we would build a spec house, sell it, build two spec houses, sell them, and so on, until the whole place was sold,’’ he says.
‘‘We’ve had God knows how many land agents up here and they say, ‘Why hasn’t this sold?’ The views are spectacular, it’s a very nice house – you wouldn’t recreational opportunities, deer fenced, excellent building sites on the middle terrace’’. It has a GV of $600,000.
Braun is required to report to the OIO on the sale process.
Canres has two local directors – retired accountant Graham Riley and lawyer Peter O’Dea.
Riley said the Braun family had a long relationship with New Zealand. They would rather not sell the Cust property but ‘‘they knew the conditions’’.
‘‘They ran out of time and they didn’t get an extension. I’m surmising that’s what happened.
‘‘They’re finding Australia, where they have another property, a bit more friendly than New Zealand,’’ he said.
O’Dea declined to comment. Braun could not be contacted.