Low price growth for record setting Wategos, Byron Bay trophy home

Low price growth for record setting Wategos, Byron Bay trophy home
Jonathan ChancellorDecember 7, 2020

A record $18.85 million has been paid for a house overlooking Wategos Beach at Byron Bay.

It’s the existing longtime record holder on the Marine Parade dress circle at the popular surfing location.

Property developer Danny Goldberg secured the sale in an offmarket deal with Sydney buyer Eli Havas, from the Sydney rag trading family, who bought without any registered mortgage.

Low price growth for record setting Wategos, Byron Bay trophy home

It has been reported the purchase is associated with F45 gym entrepreneur Adam Gilchrist.

The former Ticor Developments director, Goldberg, who is now chairman of private equity firm, Dakota Capital, bought the home for a record $15.68 million some 13 years ago, reflecting slow annual 1.5 percent price growth.

The latest sale was almost double the highest sale during the interim — $9.5 million in 2015 about 10 houses along.

The home, set diagonally opposite popular Rae's restaurant, became known as Wategos House, a $31,000-a-week peak-season holiday rental.

Low price growth for record setting Wategos, Byron Bay trophy home

The price didn’t knock Palm Beach off its mantle as priciest beach retreat location in NSW.

Wategos House rental marketing suggests the property offers “unbeatable outdoor living spaces”. The six-bedroom beachfront sits on 1500 sqm, and its front terrace overlooks the beach with a custom-made table for 14. 

The $18.85 million confidence-boosting sale comes at a time when there is no shortage of stunning homes on and off the market available for buyers. Like the rest of the housing market downturn, prices in the upper end have been hit by around 12 per cent, according to CoreLogic.

The article was published in the Saturday Daily Telegraph.

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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