David Williamson exits Pearl Beach poorer as holiday home debt remains unfashionable

David Williamson exits Pearl Beach poorer as holiday home debt remains unfashionable
Jonathan ChancellorFebruary 6, 2021

The veteran Pearl Beach playwright David Williamson has sold his occasional retreat, but at a loss given Sydneysiders no longer want to take on the debt of holiday homes.

Set among gum trees, Tranquility Cottage was last traded in 2005 for $985,000 for the family NSW retreat of the Noosa-based Williamson and his writer wife, Kirstin.

It was up for sale initially in 2010 with $1.1 million hopes, but now 3 Cornelian Road is under offer at $860,000.

It was relisted last November with $900,000 plus through Stuart Gan of PRDnationwide Ettalong, who had adjusted the advisory to $875,000 plus in March.

Title Tattle recalls the Williamsons bought their first Pearl Beach house in 1979 for $55,000.

It was Pearl Beach that helped inspire his 17th play, Money and Friends, which was set on the sundecks at mythical Crystal Inlet.

Williamson, who paid $55,000 for his initial Pearl Beach backblocker, denied real comparisons between Crystal Inlet and Pearl Beach.

However, Williamson conceded at the time that the Crystal Inlet sundecks (those of the jerry-built fibro cottage and ultra-modern concrete mansion) similarly exist among the 630 houses at Pearl Beach.

"It (Pearl Beach) certainly has got the fibro cottages and grand beach homes, like most fashionable holiday places," he said.

In the late 1990s they paid $1.9 million for the secluded Noosa district property, Aeolus. It was one of 10 homes set in an 8,800-square-metre private enclave, with beach frontage to Sunshine Beach.

The four-bedroom house was designed by John Mainwaring with extensive open-plan areas and outdoor decking.

 

 

Jonathan Chancellor

Jonathan Chancellor is one of Australia's most respected property journalists, having been at the top of the game since the early 1980s. Jonathan co-founded the property industry website Property Observer and has written for national and international publications.

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