FARMER COTTONS ON WITH MASSIVE PROFIT
RETIRED cotton farmer Alan Frost has “harvested” the highest price for a Gold Coast home this year, selling a beachfront Mermaid Beach property for $11.6 million.
The home, at 103-105 Hedges Ave, has been bought by an interstate buyer.
The deal represents a $5 million gain by Mr Frost, who bought the two-title property at a forced auction in 2014.
It had been the home of GFC-hit developer Mark Howard, who seven years earlier built a house on one 405sq m title and an entertaining pavilion on the other.
The Frost sale was achieved by Kollosche Prestige Agents principal Michael Kollosche and Prestige Property’s Harry Kakavas, the team that in January achieved a Gold Coast penthouse record by selling developer Ron Bakir’s Surfers Paradise penthouse for $9.5 million.
The sale is the fourth largest on the Mermaid beachfront since the strip’s GFCinduced doldrums, with one of the sales – former Billabong investor Scott Perrin’s Gold Coast residential record $25 million deal on his home Tidemark – leading the way.
The new owner of the Frost property gets a house with three ensuite bedrooms, a guest retreat, study, lap
pool, and a basement with a media room, wet bar, powder room, and parking for six vehicles.
Mr Frost has owned multiple properties on Hedges Ave, selling one of them at a $4.7 million loss immediately after buying the ex-Howard property.
He owns 243 Hedges Ave, where he is forging ahead
with approved plans for a building with three penthouse-style beachfront residences.
Mr Kakavas yesterday said the buyer of 103-105 Hedges Ave was a Melbourne-based family with previous exposure to the beachfront.
“The intention is to relocate to Mermaid Beach and to enrol the children in Gold Coast schools,” he said.
Mr Kollosche said the $11.6 million sale was the latest evidence of a “tidal shift” in the beachfront market.
“I don’t think I ever have seen the supply situation so tight on the Mermaid beachfront.
“Buyers are having to compete for the limited opportunities that arise.”
Mr Kollosche said that was the case with an older home on a 405sq m beachfront lot at 133 Hedges Ave.
He said it was under contract for $4.4 million to a Gold Coast buyer who intended to clear the site and build a new house.
The sellers were entities linked to Dr Paul Allison and women’s fashion importer and retailer Janine Edwards.