Lockdown means time to appreciate home at Bondi for Ben Johnston

Living near Bondi Beach and managing the financial affairs of world-class surfers sounds like a job made in heaven, and for business adviser Ben Johnston it is.

Ben and Ramona Johnston at home in Bondi. Picture: Nikki Short

Living near world famous Bondi Beach and managing the financial affairs of world-class surfers sounds like a job made in heaven, and for business adviser Ben Johnston it is.

“I have never lived further than 1km from a beach,” says Johnston, who runs Johnston Advisory, a Sydney and Gold Coast-based financial advisory firm for clients such as the world’s fourth best surfer, Morgan Cibilic, as well as Jack Freestone and his partner Alana Blanchard.

Born and bred in Sydney’s beachside Cronulla, Johnston moved to Sydney’s eastern suburbs for his children’s schooling and, together with wife Ramona, has built an architecturally-­designed house in Bondi.

Although the five-bedroom house with trendy contemporary concrete flooring was completed in 2017, Johnston says it is only now that Covid-19 is raging through Sydney – which is in a long-term lockdown – that he has had the time to fully ­appreciate it.

“We used to travel a lot, through the winter we spent a lot of time down at the snow, between Thredbo and Mt Buller, and in the summer we have gone to Colorado for the past 10 years for five to six weeks at a time,” Johnston says.

But due to Covid he says the family, including the couple’s two children, have spent Christmas at home in Bondi.

”I have never lived further than 1km from a beach,’ says Ben Johnston. Picture: Nikki Short

“Although we built this place, it’s one of those things, a house takes a long time to be a home, and because of Covid that has accelerated,” Johnston says.

“We had an architect design it, we spelled out what we wanted, a home where everyone had to interact, as well as a couple of private zones.”

His favourite room? Apart from the gym, and the outdoor area with a pool, one of the living rooms upstairs that overlooks a big fig tree where he takes some of his work calls.

Workwise, Johnston is cognisant of the short earning time frame of professional sportspeople such as surfers.

“I provide financial guidance … I help them buy their first property, set up their asset protection vehicles, maximise their earnings in the short space of time they have to earn money,” he says.

“A lot of them end up with a lot of super and multiple properties in their early 30s. It is good to see they are making the most of that short window they have to earn money.”

Like his four brothers, Johnston started surfing from around the age of one. His ­father was one of the first Australian schoolboy champion surfers.

But it is not only ocean sports clients that he attracts.

“I do a lot of people in fashion, media, and marketing,” he says.

“I am not narrow, while a big part of my business is around surfing, all my business is through word of mouth, (but) obviously if you operate in a particular industry it (the work) flows from that.”

Ben Johnston says it is only now that Covid-19 is raging through Sydney – which is in a long-term lockdown – that he has had the time to fully ­appreciate the house that was completed in 2017. Picture: Nikki Short

On the real estate front, Johnston recommends his clients focus on capital growth over rental returns and he likes the Gold Coast and northern NSW.

He suggests his clients buy in areas they are familiar with, either where they live now or know intimately through family connections or friends.

“Buying in areas where you are chasing speculative gains is a lot more difficult,” he says.

He adds that the difference in one suburb or one street can have a significant impact on a property’s value.

“When you live in those areas you know what is good and bad … buy in an area you are familiar with,” he says.

The Gold Coast has long been a highly volatile area property-wise, but Johnston says there is now a lot of government infrastructure going in.

“I think the Gold Coast has some scope to hold its value and grow moving forward based on continued population growth and particularly on the back of Brisbane winning the 2032 Olympics,” he says.

Originally published as Lockdown means time to appreciate home at Bondi for Ben Johnston