Bilgola Beach house sells for $5.35 million
A Bilgola Beach property, bought 12 years ago by Rich List tycoon John Kinghorn for $3.7 million, has been sold for $5.35 million to an expatriate buyer.
Its listing agent David Watson of LJ Hooker Avalon had suggested the property would sell for more than $5 million. There were three registered bidders who competed when auctioneer David Scholes put the listing to recent auction.
The four-bedroom house on its 637-square-metre block is just one one of seven Allen Avenue properties with direct access to the beach.
It was a record price when the $3.7 million was paid for the Warren family's 1937 weatherboard shack through L.J. Hooker selling agent David Watson in 2001.
The billionaire Blair Parry-Okeden bought for $3.35 million in 1999, and the expat banker Tim Throsby was the most recent buyer paying $5.6 million in 2010.
Bilgola Beach ranks as one of the priciest surfside enclaves on the Northern Beaches peninsula with around 100 houses in the three streets between "the Barrenjoey Road bends" and the sea.
The Kinghorn family's patriach, John made around $500 million from the float of his company Rams Home Loans in 2007. The house sale represented around 3.3% annual price growth.
On its sale last week, the beneficiaries were Douglas Kinghorn and Jack Thomas as last December John and Jill Kinghorn's family company had transferred the property without monetary consideration to the 70-year-old Jack Thomas of Kirribilli, who subsequently offloaded a 10% stake to Douglas Kinghorn for $450,000 also last December.