Holiday home set for stunning sale
A FAMILY who bought a Gold Coast beach cottage for a few thousand pounds in the late 1950s stands to make more than $5 million on the sale of their property.
Brian and Janette Gibson have reluctantly put their Mermaid Beach house, held in the family for 60 years, on the market at $5.3 million.
Mr Gibson’s late mother Barbie bought 215 Hedges Ave in 1958 after selling her Surfers Paradise property.
The property was passed down to her three sons before Brian and wife Janette bought out his brothers by 1985.
“She (Barbie) and her husband had a property in Surfers Paradise but as far as she was concerned Surfers was getting too busy and noisy,” Janette Gibson said.
“Then she saw this Mermaid Beach property — at that stage there were only gravel roads.”
The house was used as a holiday home for the Gibson family throughout the 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s.
“Our children and grandchildren have known it all their lives as a house for holidays,” Ms Gibson said.
“It was always a lovely family area and that was why everybody loved it.
“Growing up, there were a lot of children living nearby who were all similar ages to our four children. I remember our eldest daughter had a birthday in January and we had about 25 children from the neighbourhood at the house.”
In 2002, Brian and Janette decided to take up residence in the beachfront house.
They said they could never have imagined what Mermaid Beach and particularly Hedges Ave would become.
“The changes to the suburb have been unbelievable. We’ve seen it go ahead in leaps and bounds,” Ms Gibson said.
While the couple said they would be sad to leave the cottage, the time had come to sell.
“All of our children’s friends have said ‘oh you’re not selling it’ and our friends have said the same thing,” Ms Gibson said.
“They remember the lovely times we’ve had here and the times they have come and stayed here.”
The cottage has been extended and modernised but is well-maintained with some of its original fittings.
John Natoli of The Agency is marketing the 405sq m property – one of 29 corner blocks on the well-known “millionaires row’’.
“It provides a rare opportunity to purchase a decreasing supply of beachfront land suitable for the creation of a beachfront mansion,” Mr Natoli said. Hedges Ave holds the record for the highest sale on the Gold Coast when, in 2008, BreakFree founder Tony Smith sold an uncompleted mansion in Hedges Ave to later-failed internet whiz Daniel Tzvetkoff for $27 million.