The 27ha estate dates back to 1857 and was listed for $3.95million through Colliers Queenstown.
Rene Bros, general manager for the purchasing company, NZHouseChina, would not comment on the terms of the sale.
He said the estate's history and its past use as a school factored significantly in the purchase.
The estate was an educational facility from 1908-87 and now the plan for its future was to develop an educational facility for Chinese students, who would live on site - as well as to develop a ‘‘tourism component''.
NZHouseChina sent New Zealand products such as wine, honey, snacks and skin care products to China, Mr Bros said.
Last month, the company sent about $2million of New Zealand brands to China, but now it would begin a new focus on services, Mr Bros said.
‘‘Over time, one of the ideas was to sell the concept of ‘Brand New Zealand' as not just brands, but also as a destination, education and so on,'' Mr Bros said.
Details were slim on the future of the estate, but only because the sale was finalised last week.
The company might not take possession of the property until the end of March.
‘‘I'm not trying to be evasive here: we've just gone through with the sale,'' Mr Bros said.
‘‘We are very aware that the moment you mention China people start to go, ‘Oh, what's going to happen?'
‘‘What's going to happen is all the existing employees have been offered roles and we intend the business to grow - and it primarily will be an educational facility.
‘‘There will be a component of tourism because it would be ridiculous not to take our existing site - it's a beautiful piece of the country - and it would be ludicrous just to leave the tourists in Dunedin and in Queenstown.''
In 1988, after the Ministry of Education closed a special school for boys on the site, American Charles Tompkins and son Nathan bought the estate.
Mr Bros said yesterday he expected the estate to again become a ‘‘hub of education''.
‘‘I see great value in having an open platform whether it be for university kids, businessmen, or just people who want to expand their horizons,'' he said.
‘‘Rather than limit it to university students learning English, we're going to try and be a little bit more open than that and give greater scope.''
The 32 houses in the property's village are rented short-term for events and by people on the Alps 2 Ocean Cycle Trail. Others are rented longer term, largely by dairy farm workers from neighbouring farms.
Mr Bros said the rented houses in the village would not be affected by the purchase.
‘‘We are a New Zealand-based company. We're not going to change their world overnight. Our intent is that the people in the 32 homes are going to be totally unaffected,'' he said.
‘‘It's not a great way to win friends and influence people, to act like a bad landlord from day one.''
A neighbour, who asked not to be named, said she hoped the new owners would respect the site's history.
‘‘I really hope that the new owners are able to put some financial resources into the restoration of the castle and the old stable complex, which has been derelict for a long time.
‘‘It would be really great to see the history of this region enjoyed and restored,'' the neighbour said.
Mr Bros said the company would ‘‘restore what we can with as much compassion and thoughtfulness as we can''.
‘‘It will be done with compassion and consultancy with the locals - we want it to be what it once was,'' he said.
The future of the site would now be explored with service providers.
‘‘It was difficult to have bona fide conversations with service providers until we had secured the site. A lot of people, including me, don't have time for hypotheticals, when it may or may not happen.
‘‘We are now just brokering those conversations. It is not going to happen tomorrow anyway, we have got some work to do bringing the site back to its glory. While that's happening we will be having those conversations with various interested parties.''
Tourism Waitaki general manager Jason Gaskill said Chinese visitor numbers continued to grow in Waitaki's expanding tourism market and tourism was ‘‘definitely on the upward climb'' and was a smart place to invest at present.
Anecdotal evidence from tourism operators indicated ‘‘increases in the double digits percentage-wise'' this year again after a strong year of growth last year.
‘‘This is the beginning of the new normal. And people are watching - and these guys obviously are. I think it's fantastic that they are looking at doing that kind of stuff. And Campbell Estate is the perfect location to put those kind of things in.''Waitaki Mayor Gary Kircher said he was keen to meet the new owners.‘‘If they are a company that is here to invest and help to diversify our economy in a sustainable way, that's great,'' Mr Kircher said.
In 2008, and again in 2011, the estate was put on the market but did not sell.
On the New Zealand business registry, the sole director of New Zealand House China Ltd is Richard Ciliang Yan.
According to the blog chinadialogue, Mr Yanbecame a New Zealand citizen after becoming the first Chinese national to win a Rotary Scholarship to study at Auckland Grammar School.
He went on to Auckland University and received a masters of business administration from Harvard Business School, the graduate business school of Harvard University, in the United States.
