J.K. Rowling's $10m Tassie holiday home?

The rumours can officially be quashed, J.K. Rowling will not be holidaying in Tassie, in a new home, any time soon.

Shortly after a Woman’s Day story sparked rampant rumours on the internet, the story was denied by the real purchaser.

Despite an apparently signed confidentiality agreement with vendors Andrew and Audrey Youl, Woman’s Day published a statement in their story from another Youl family member insisting that Rowling was indeed the buyer.

Woman’s Day says that the billionaire author bought Symmons Plains in March.

“She’ll use the property as a holiday hideaway for her family from Scotland,” the family source told the magazine.

However, George Hawker, a director of the purchasing company Clovelly Tasmania, told The Mercury newspaper that Rowling was not an investor in the company.

“We are an Australian-based company which invests in agriculture with some international investors but I can tell you unequivocally that J.K. Rowling is not one of them,” Mr Hawker said.

Stephen Creese, managing director of Clovelly Tasmania, told The Examiner that the entire report was incorrect.

“I have no idea where that [report] has come from, and there is no truth in it,” he said.

Clovelly Tasmania has bought several Tasmanian properties in the past 10 years including Bowood, near Bridport, for $7.75 million in 2005.

Woman’s Day also reported that its Youl family source said Bowood was another Rowling purchase.

The Youl family has owned the historic Symmons Plains property since the 1820s. Andrew and Audrey were the seventh generation of the family to have lived on the estate.

The grand two-storey Georgian house was built in 1839 and sits on the 856-hectare property on the banks of the South Esk River near Perth.

Online ads for Symmons Plains said the property “sits serenely on a gentle rise looking across beautiful gardens to the South Esk River and the eastern mountain ranges”.

Located about 25 kilometres south of Launceston, the property offers “all the conveniences of commuter living close to a major regional city, yet the privacy and scale of a major farming operation”.

Interviewed before the sale, Mr Youl told The Examiner that “the historical aspect of it weighs on me heavily”.

“We only celebrated 200 years of Youls in Tasmania in 2008.

“But the fact is that you have to look beyond what is the historical stuff and consider what is best for us and our family” he said.

The whole estate was offered to buyers, but as a second option the farm without the house was offered.

The online ads also described the stately, seven-bedroom brick house as being set in “beautiful gardens sweeping down to the banks of the South-Esk River”.

“The sprawling grounds have four kilometres of river frontage and include a tennis court, swimming pool, home gym and original stables”.

“The three-kilometre driveway is lined with 160-year-old English oak trees.”

Rowling’s net worth was valued at $US1 billion in March 2011 by Forbes.