Queenstown estate sets national lifestyle property price record

Friday, 28 March 2025

A Queenstown property nestled between the Remarkables and Lake Hayes has sold for $45.5m.

A 19-hectare Queenstown estate has set a new benchmark for lifestyle property prices, selling for a jaw-dropping $45.5 million.

The Chantecler estate, located on Lower Shotover Rd, included a lush, award-winning garden recognized by the New Zealand Gardens Trust as a “garden of national significance”.

The property featured a four-bedroom home designed in a French-style with several living areas, an outdoor pool, multiple fireplaces, terraces and a glass-roofed orangery.

The gardens were the jewel of the estate though.

The estate featured a four-bedroom home designed in a French-style with several living areas, an outdoor pool, multiple fireplaces, terraces, and even a glass-roofed orangery.

They included redwood sequoias and sweetgum trees, as well as hundreds of rhododendrons, azaleas, magnolias, camellias, hydrangeas, Japanese maples, lavender plants and roses.

The property was sold off-market in 2023 by Hamish Walker of Walker & Co Realty, but the new owner got the key in December.

Walker said a longer settlement was quite common for high-price real estate sales.

When he first visited the property he was stunned by the garden, he said.

The Chantecler estate featured in the book In the Company of Gardeners published by Penguin Random House in 2021.

“The most impressive garden I’ve ever set foot in.

“If not the best garden in New Zealand, surely among the best,” Walker said.

The 19ha estate included hundreds of varieties of different plants and a pond.

The sale of Chantecler eclipsed the previous record of $38.5 million, set in 2013 for the Hotchin mansion in Auckland’s Orakei, according to real estate agency OneRoof.

Walker said the previous owners used the property quite often to host fundraising events, with the money being donated to Plunket and to support the local community.

Previous owner Mike Henry and the Chantecler property featured in the book In the Company of Gardeners published by Penguin Random House in 2021.

In the book, Henry described the garden as a retirement project after he abandoned the busy pace of Auckland in 2006.

Henry employed two full-time gardeners, as the lawn of the gardens took more than a day to mow, he told book author Sue Allison.

Chantecler estate was named after a hotel in South Africa, where Henry originated from.

It was 11km away from Queenstown, between Lake Hayes and the Remarkables.