REMEMBER WHEN

GOLD COAST BULLETIN Thursday, January 20, 2005

A SLICE of the exclusive waterfront estate The Sovereign Islands sold for a record $9.5 million.

The vacant 3500 sqm site nestled in the The Knightsbridge precinct was snapped up by an expatriate Australian family man in his 30s, based in Britain, who planned to build a $12-$14 million mansion on the site.

The record-breaking sale knocked Sydney off its perch as home to Australia’s most exclusive residential address.

The new owner intended to build a home of ‘international renown’, making it the hottest address in the country.

It would outstrip Russell Crowe’s $14 million pad at Woolloomooloo and ultimately exceed the $16.75 million being sought for a four-storey penthouse at Juniper’s Soul apartment tower, earmarked for the heart of Surfers Paradise.

Billabong part-founder Scott Perrin spent $14 million on his Albatross Ave home, while Lang Walker paid $10 million for a Hope Island property.

The Gold Coast’s rise to the top of the prestige housing market had been meteoric with well-heeled investors able to snap up waterfront land for about the $1.5 million mark until several years earlier.

With prime waterfront sites drying up, industry analysts now said the Gold Coast had many of the country’s most sought after residential addresses.

The previous house-land record at Sovereign Islands was $7 million, sold to developer John Fish.

The former land record sale for one single allotment was $2.6 million.