Pepin Island sells to mystery kiwi buyers

Pepin Island has sold to a New Zealand company after 26 years of international ownership.

Details of the sale price, once on the market at $16 million, vendor and purchaser remain confidential however it was a multi-offer sale involving two New Zealand buyers.

The 518-hectare property and working sheep farm was sold by real estate agency New Zealand Sotheby’s International Realty (NZSIR) earlier this month.

Historian John Mitchell said Ngāti Tama and other iwi came into the area from the 1820s, and that part of the island was once the pā of the paramount chief of Tama, Te Pūoho-o-te-rangi, but that it left Ngāti Tama control around 1880.

In 1996, the island was bought by the German businesswoman Dr Viola von Hohenzollern (née Hallman) for $2 million. Her daughter Olivia Hallman inherited the island following her death in 2012.

NZSIR Nelson sales associate Ian Keightley says the significant sale brings the ownership of the phenomenal private island back into New Zealand hands.

“Pepin Island is a stunning slice of New Zealand which has a special place in the hearts of locals in the Nelson region,” he says.

The property offers a seven-bedroom farmhouse, private accommodation with three unique eco-chalets as part of a small-scale, low-environmental-impact tourism operation.

“The purchaser’s intention is to continue the current farming operation, tourist accommodation business, maintain current public access and further explore the establishment of strategic environmental areas across the island. – a decision I’m sure will be welcomed by the Nelson community.” says Ian.