The mansion in which the latest batch of the MasterChef TV hit show on Channel 10 was filmed has been bought by an investor. Many say that the buyer is China-based.

Last week, the deed was done. The sale of 323 St Kilda Street, Brighton, where the competitors were housed for the finals, was completed. The real estate dealers of property have estimated that it may have garnered over $5 million.

Sprawled on a huge 1,883 sq-m block, the house nestles near Port Phillip Bay.

The palatial building, swept into creation by designer Peter Carmichael and constructed by Everclear, is as good as it looks. It is a modern mansion, with six bedrooms and four bathrooms, a home cinema and a play room. The hub of the house for the competition is the kitchen and wine cellar. There is also a swimming pool shaped like a half-moon, spa, gym, and a beach shore on one end of the street. The huge, square-metre garage houses six cars. "It is a home of substance and status," Marshall White agent Michael Paproth says, according to news.com.

Featured in a 'For sale' list with Michael Paproth from Marshall White in Albert Park, there were a lot of rumours that were attached to it earlier. The grapevine murmured that the house had an asking price of $5 million-plus.

On the Marshall White marketing brochure, the beautiful and expansive house was described in detail. The "un-paralleled luxury levels...dramatic, dynamic spaces...equally memorable alfresco areas while a Miele equipped kitchen, filled with northern light, meets contemporary needs with evident elegance and efficiency", said the brochure.

One of the added plus points of MasterChef has indeed been the house. Many hundreds came for the audition. The best 24 home cooks were searched for and filtered by the judges, Gary Mehigan, George Calombaris and Matt Preston. They joined the MasterChef Australia kitchen in the sixth of the series, which was second in Melbourne.

All the contestants were in the race to win the award of $250,000, a publishing grant, some assignments in the top kitchens of Australia and an Alfa Romeo Giulietta. But experiencing the house was also an attraction.

Toured regularly through the screen by viewers of the TV show, the house was lauded for its graceful, massive but elegant, lines. It was part of the wish list that drew everyone. Just getting into a cookbook competition against the background of the house made the TV reality show supremely attractive.