Richard Balcombe-Langridge is best known as the owner of Metropolitan Rentals. However, the bulk of his investments is made up of residential and commercial property.
The specialist vehicle company, which was founded by his late father in 1948, operates from a $6.3m yard on Dominion Rd, Mt Eden. His son Andrew joined the company as a director in 2010.
Richard Balcombe-Langridge started on building the family property portfolio when he began investing in rental property in the 1970s.
Known as “Mr Fixit,” his most recently completed project is the Pepperwood Mews apartment block in Kelston. The block, widely recognised as New Zealand’s most notorious leaky building, was reconstructed almost from the bottom up after he bought the badly vandalised shell of a building for $2.28 million. It is now worth $3.52 million after he turned the apartments into 32 private rental properties, which Balcombe-Langridge lets through his property company, Silvercloud Holdings.
His property interests also include the $10.75m Tudor-style Surrey Hotel in Grey Lynn along with the $3m YMCA Waiwera Lodge, which is a 50/50 partnership with his son, Andrew, who also owns a number of properties.
Known as a passionate car collector, Balcombe-Langridge has a private museum built like a French Chateau stable block on his Brookby property, which houses 25 Rolls Royces and six Bentleys. The house is valued at 2.3m.
2018: $110 million