PROPERTY PLAYS
COTTAGE ON THE BLOCK
AMONG the grand mansions and glitzy apartments, it may just be a modest little beach shack that steals the show at Ray White’s prestige auction this month.
The 402sq m home at 3517 Main Beach Parade is one of only three original beach homes along the sun-soaked Main Beach strip and, for the first time in 50 years, is about to change hands.
Marketing agent Robert Graham, of Ray White Surfers Paradise, said one of the other
original shacks, the 458sq m 3573 Main Beach Parade, sold for $7.3m in July last year.
“I have had more inquiries on this listed property from outside the Gold Coast than what the owners could have ever imagined. It’s had a huge response,” Mr Graham said.
“These properties just do not come up anymore.”
Once the house is auctioned, it will leave 3561 Main Beach Parade, a white weatherboard cottage with an ornate wood facade owned by three sisters from Brisbane, as the final cottage along the beach strip that has not sold since the 1970s.
Melpa Stavrou, the seller of 3517 Main Beach Parade, found the cottage when taking a walk along the beach with her husband one holiday. “As soon as we saw it standing alone on the beach, we knew it had to be ours,” Mrs Stavrou said. “We placed a note under the door hoping to pique the owner’s interest, and sure enough, we finally made the cottage our weekend home in March of 1971.”
The Stavrous paid about $12,000 for the house and while considered expensive at the time, it has turned out to be an irreplaceable investment.
“As soon as we walked through the front door and saw the ocean, we knew we had found a gem. For 50 years it has been a piece of paradise for our family.”
As Mrs Stavrou’s children began to have families of their own, the couple made the decision to ease into retirement at Main Beach permanently.
“Our grandchildren were able to enjoy the house too, so the place is very sentimental to us. We’ve built so many memories there that it’s become a piece of all of us.”
Her son, John Stavrou, said the family hoped the new owners would be able to build their own memories there.
Ray White’s prestige auction is on January 28, following the annual Ray White Event auction on January 24, when more than 100 properties will go under the hammer.
I HAVE HAD MORE INQUIRIES ON THIS LISTED PROPERTY FROM OUTSIDE THE GOLD COAST THAN WHAT THE OWNERS COULD HAVE EVER IMAGINED ROBERT GRAHAM, RAY WHITE SURFERS PARADISE AGENT