From humble start to flashiest street
IT IS 1962 on the Gold Coast.
Highrises are still a novelty, the roads don’t have gutters and a brand new E J Holden costs £1051, not dollars.
A teenage Myrna Pearce would mingle among the gum trees of hectares of bare land where her late parents, Bruce and Lorna Bertram, snapped up their three-bedroom Monaco St house for just £6000.
Little did they know they were buying into what would become the most expensive street on the Gold Coast in 2017.
Ms Pearce said the house was one of the first to be built on the street.
“The street was basically bare,” Ms Pearce said.
“There were three to four gum trees up the road and I was able to roam around and spent plenty of time around the canals.
“My dad would have his boat anchored out the back.”
Ms Pearce, a grandmother of one, only moved out of the house this year and said it was her father, the secretary manager of the Burleigh Golf Club, who wanted to live on Monaco St.
Ms Pearce has fond memories in the house, including her 1973 wedding reception.
She said the time was right to take her family home to auction next month.
The house is virtually untouched with the original barbecue, bath and kitchen in place. “I’d like to see another family love it as much as my family have loved it,” she said.
Ms Pearce has watched the street transform over the years into a residential playground for the rich and famous.
“It started being developed in the early 1970s,” she said. “It stopped for a bit when we had the floods and took off again in the early 1980s.”
Monaco St now has some of the biggest residences on the Gold Coast, with some properties changing hands for more than $9 million in recent months.
“I actually think prices will go higher here,” she said.
“People want to live here because it’s so central. You can walk to the beach and walk to shopping centres.”
Ray White Prestige agent Sherry Smith is marketing the 551sq m property and said it was a rare find.
“The position is one of the best addresses on the Gold Coast and it’s possibly one of the most affordable waterfront properties in Broadbeach Waters.”
The auction is on August 12.