Van Breda Australian family home on sale for R25-million

The bloodstained Van Breda home in Stellenbosch, which eventually sold for R6.2-million after nearly two years on the market, pales in comparison with the family's Australian mansion.

The seven-bedroom house on Australia's Sunshine Coast, north of Brisbane, has gone on the market for A$2.49-million (about R25-million) as Henri van Breda, 21, prepares for his murder trial in the High Court in Cape Town later this month.

The Sunshine Coast Daily reported this week that the house Martin van Breda bought on the Buderim hillside less than three years before his death had been put on the market by the executor of his estate.

Close family friend Paul Freney told the newspaper that Martin, 54, who was murdered in his golf estate home in January 2015, with his wife, Teresa, and elder son, Rudi, always planned to bring his family back to his Australian house.

According to the estate agent marketing the home, it has "incomparable character fashioned in unique circular design, voluminous living zone with double-height atrium ceiling, luxe stone kitchen, preparation area and walk-in pantry".

The sales spiel adds: "Capturing sweeping views to Moreton Island and the Glasshouse Mountains, Aquila is an architectural, eco-designed ... former luxury retreat on a magnificent 9.5-acre parcel".

Freney said he saw Martin at the house two months before his death. "We had coffee in Mooloolaba. He was coming and going [to South Africa and back] as he was building a school over there. I never saw him again."

Freney told the newspaper he was "involved" in 2012 when Martin purchased the home for A$2.2-million.

"It was a bed-and-breakfast when he bought it, but he changed it all around and made it a home.

"It was real African-style home, roundish, with lots of wood and views over Caloundra. He had all his African furniture in there and left his cars and furniture in there. He never rented it out."

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Lawyer Marguerite de Wet, acting for the executor of the estate, told the newspaper that "we are going through the process and winding up the estate in terms of the will".

Henri is out on bail until the start of his trial on March 27. He allegedly killed his father, mother and brother with an axe at De Zalze Winelands Golf Estate. He is also charged with the attempted murder of his sister, Marli, now 18.

Henri will have to divide his time between the high court and the Cape Town Magistrate's Court, where he faces drug charges alongside his girlfriend, Danielle Janse van Rensburg.

The couple were arrested in Table View, Cape Town, last year for alleged possession of dagga and are set to answer to the charges on April 11.