Fairfield House - Windsor - NSW

Fairfield House, the 1833 Georgian mansion built by pioneer William Cox at Windsor, has been sold by the executors of the late karate world champion-turned-professional poker player, Ladislaus “Joe” Meissner.

It sold for $2.4m through Lloyds Real Estate, which marketed it as suitable as a boutique hotel, day spa, aged-care facility or function venue, with its R2 and RE2 zoning.

The original 1830s house that sits on 7822sq m was expanded into a remarkable trophy home in the 1880s by Henry McQuade, manager of Her Majesty’s Theatre, and his actress wife Cissy Durant. It comes with a ballroom with two cloakrooms.

Meissner, who was last in the news in 2009 with his unsuccessful Western Sydney A-League proposal, paid $900,000 for the property in 1988 with his then wife, Sharron.

It was three years after The Sunday Telegraph published a 1985 report that he owned the infamous “Love Boat” that briefly scandalised NSW politics.

With connections to the NSW Labor Party as former secretary of its Enmore branch, it was alleged senior party figures had consorted with organised crime figures and a prostitute, Virginia Perger, aboard his boat the Kanzen.

Probate was granted in mid-June following Joe’s death, aged 79, last November.

The court, which was notified of his death in May, is set to hear the application next month. There has been a caveat on the Haymarket title from Xiuhua Shi since 2013 after a claim of being a co-purchaser in 2002.

It was the strata corporation’s ninth petition since 2007 to seek strata payments and arising legal costs.

According to PropTrack the median house price in Windsor, NSW is $825,000, down 12.6 per cent over the past 12 months.