COSTA MANSION FETCHES RECORD
MEGABUCKS FOR NEWTOWN COMPOUND:
A STUNNING Costa family mansion has set a new residential price record for Geelong real estate.
And incredibly, the new owners are first-home buyers.
Suzanne and Tim Cleary have sold their five-bedroom, four-bathroom house at 1-3 Whyte Court, Newtown, after a lengthy campaign.
McGrath Geelong selling agent David Cortous said the price was confidential, but confirmed it had eclipsed the $5 million record for a Geelong house.
Suzanne, one of Frank and Shirley Costa’s eight daughters, grew up at the Newtown address and bought the home from her parents in 2011.
They listed the house eight months after completing a remarkable multimillion-dollar renovation.
Initially listed with $6.1 million price hopes, it was offered with $5.8 million expectations before the contracts were signed.
Mr Cortous said the purchasers, a Geelong businessman and family with five children, were buying their first home. “They wanted to remain anonymous, but I can tell you it is their first home.”
It was Geelong’s biggest residential sale, eclipsing the $5 million for Corio Villa on Eastern Beach in 2012.
“There was other interest in the property but we marketed it on all the property sites all around the world, including Chinese websites, and the buyer was just down the road,” Mr Cortous said.
He said the buyers were excited. “The kids didn’t know anything about it and hadn’t seen the property and didn’t even know mum and dad were looking at it and we brought them there and said ‘this is yours’. They were losing it,” he said.
The unconditional contract passed the cooling off period on Wednesday night.
It is set on an elevated 3200sq m property near Queens Park bridge with a floodlit tennis court and pavilion, a glass conservatory, swimming pool, gymnasium and sauna and formal gardens in the heart of Newtown’s college precinct.
Mr Cortous said the 24room home was the pinnacle of luxury in Geelong.