Kingston Park, a 400-acre equestrian property an hour’s drive south of Melbourne on Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula, renowned for having produced some of Australia’s best known thoroughbreds is about to come to market.

Owned by the estate of billionaire horse breeder David Hains, who passed earlier this year, Kingston Park is expected to command as much as $60 million, which according to listing agent Rob Curtain of Peninsula International Realty could double the current peninsula record of $30 million.

While Kingston Park was originally a cattle and sheep farm, Hains became preoccupied with horse breeding in the 1970s and was responsible for breading prize-winners like Kingston Rule.

With David Hains’s wife having passed away a number of years earlier, their daughter Catherine Hains and her siblings concluded that with everyone living so far apart, selling up was the right decision.

Up until their father’s death, the Hains family spent Christmas and holidays at Kingston Park.

Given that the houses are largely unchanged from her youth, Catherine Hains suspects the next owner is likely to modernise the entire property.

Subdivision is one outcome

Situated across the suburbs of Red Hill and Merricks North, along a narrow arm of land and overlooking the Western Port and Port Phillip, zoning around Kingston Park ensures the land – which contains a lake, pool, tennis court, and four-hole golf course, eight box stables and enclosed areas for cattle – remains agricultural.

However, it’s understood that Hains, founder of the investment firm Portland House Group, subdivided the property into 18 parcels before the area underwent rezoning rules.

According to the Wall Street Journal (WSJ), this means whoever buys the farm – which already has several residences – could build more homes on the property or sell off the parcels individually.

In addition to the main house (circa 1950s), a four-bedroom timber-clad house with a study was added in the 1980s, while other dwellings include a caretaker’s house and multiple guest cottages.

“If a buyer isn’t forthcoming then I think it’s fair to say we will be selling in small parcels,” Curtain told the WSJ.

Images: Kingston Park: Peninsula Sotheby’s International Realty