Nicho Teng scraps plans to demolish $3.2m Mitcham mansion for French Chateau, now plans to sell it
The young Adelaide businessman who was planning to demolish his luxury $3.2m home to build a grand French Chateau has a new plan.
- Grand French Chateau for the hills a step closer
- Nicho Teng plans to demolish his $3.2m luxury hills property
The multi-millionaire businessman looking to demolish his $3.2 million luxury resort-style residence to build his dream home has changed his mind.
Nicho Teng, head of the Greaton Group, one of the nation’s fastest-growing property developers, told The Advertiser he no longer wants to build a French Chateau at 48 Carrick Hill Drive, Mitcham.
Instead, the 31-year-old tycoon, a leading sponsor of Port Adelaide Football Club, will look to sell the spectacular property on a grand 7000sq m estate formerly owned by bankrupt winemaker Andrew Garrett.
“My situation has changed since I bought the property and I’ve decided it doesn’t really suit my lifestyle,” said Mr Teng, a former student at Glenunga International High School and Flinders University.
“It would be a waste to build a house that no one lives in — there would be no warmth.”
Mr Teng, who migrated to Australia in 2011, said The Advertiser story last week that announced his expansive and expensive plans for the mansion, along with public comments made on the article, had caused him to consider his future.
His intention is to move into an executive apartment in the West Franklin complex, on the corner of Franklin, Elizabeth and Morphett streets in Adelaide’s West End.
The $300m urban regeneration residential project, begun in 2015 and comprising 560 units was the first major venture into large-scale development for Greaton.
Mr Teng said his company, which has partnered with Wirra Wirra to build the first five-star accommodation of scale in the McLaren Vale wine region, was socially responsible with high values that he wished to continue in his private life.
The entrepreneur, who was married last year, said he intends to keep Adelaide as his hometown, but with his wife still living in Sydney he was travelling regularly.
“I travelled overseas seven times last year and then each week I am to and from Sydney,” he said.
“West Franklin is more convenient, close to the airport and more what I need for now.”
Mr Teng, who also founded Haneco Lighting in 2011, now one of Australia’s largest manufacturers and suppliers of LED lighting, first saw the Mitcham house in early 2017 with his parents, who were looking to migrate to Australia from China.
The house, with one of the best views in Adelaide, had been on the market for 12 months and was priced at $4 million but he and his family decided the property was not suitable for their needs.
It was only when he saw the luxury houses of high-profile friends and acquaintances in Beaumont valued at more than $5 million that he realised the Mitcham property was “a bargain”.
Mr Teng said Stephanie Williams, co-owner of Harcourts Williams, had been a “valued adviser” in his search to find a new home and about what he should do with the Mitcham property.
After a series of negotiations he bought the estate in November 2017, settling in April 2018, for $3.2 million.
Other than Christmas lunch last year with family and friends Mr Teng has spent little time in the house that dominates the landscape at the bottom of Brown Hill.
He paid an astonishing $170,000 in state government stamp duty on the property — more than the third of the cost of the median house price in metropolitan Adelaide, which is $480,000.
He spent a further $50,000 on architect plans to improve the property before deciding to totally demolish the house and luxury pool area and build the Chateau design of more than 1000sq m, presented by the Galvin Group that he found “tasteful”.
Mitcham Council approved his plans last week but by then he says he had already decided to sell.
“The view is one of the best in Adelaide and that alone makes the property great value for money,” Mr Teng, said.
“Overall I think I got a bargain and there should be a good increase.”
The initial house build was controversial when it began in 2004 because the house is located entirely within the Hills face zone.
Local residents opposed the new Chateau proposal on the basis they believed it was “non-compliant” and “an utter waste”.