Lie of the land
A government crackdown has seen an American pair forced to sell their high-country estate, writes Charlie Mitchell.
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 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 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