You thought Brisbane’s pink mansion was abandoned. It’s not

There is little sign of life at the sprawling mansion: the gates are padlocked, the windows are shuttered, the walls are black and cracking in places and the pool is empty. But the grass is mown, the hedges are neatly trimmed, and the garden beds are tidy.

The palatial pink mansion on the Brisbane River at Norman Park remains one of the city’s most mysterious houses.

Some say its owners have locked the doors and moved overseas, using it occasionally as a holiday home. Others insist the owner lives in Sydney, while some say it is occupied by a caretaker.

But there is a resident, who has been taking in the majestic view of the Brisbane River, across to New Farm Park, for the past 31 years.

“The property is definitely not abandoned, despite what people say on TikTok,” says Konrad Lin, who lives in the house that was bought by his parents at the end of 1993.

“Brisbane has grown a lot; there’s so many new buildings. The view from the house has changed dramatically … but I still believe that I have the best view in Brisbane.

“I can see each reach of river. I’ve got the river right in front of me and the CBD right behind it and New Farm Park on my right-hand side.”

“The property is definitely not abandoned.”

Resident Konrad Lin

Lin would prefer to remain anonymous. But he has agreed to speak as he is exasperated by the barrage of people scaling his fence in the mistaken belief the house is empty. These urban explorers are not deterred by the 12 security cameras and No Trespassing signs positioned around the house.

“I do get a lot of people trying to explore my property,” he says.

A sign on the front fence warning trespassers.

On some occasions, he confronts trespassers himself, other times he calls the police.

“I live a very quiet life,” he says.

“You can probably call it a very reclusive life. I don’t like having any spotlight on me.”

However, he acknowledges his home is “quite iconic”.

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Lin was a 17-year-old schoolboy at Brisbane Boys’ College when his parents purchased the mansion in his name from Queensland business identity and shipbuilder Keith Lloyd, who founded the Shafston International College at Kangaroo Point.

The property, as seen through the gates on Wynnum Road.

Lloyd reportedly spent close to $12 million building the mansion on a 3450 square metre block of prime riverfront land, taking inspiration from the Tara plantation in the movie Gone with the Wind for the property’s exterior, and from the Palace of Versailles for the opulent interiors. Construction started in 1984 and took about five years. The shipbuilder named the property Le Rivage – French for “the shore”.

It features nine bedrooms, 13 bathrooms, an eight-tonne, hand-carved marble bath, a Louis XVI fireplace from Versailles, a mahogany library, a basement garage, a boathouse with direct access to the river, a housekeeper’s residence and an 82-metre-long private jetty along the length of the property. The jetty adds another 1647 square metres to the size of the property.

When it sold, Le Rivage was the most expensive home in Brisbane.

Sarah Hackett of Place Estate Agents has no doubt it will fetch another record sale price, despite the work it needs.

“The value is in the land size, and the property does have a romantic side to it too,” Hackett says.

“There’s money to be spent on it, but the position is spectacular. When you are there, you are just mesmerised by this massive river frontage. It would set a new record for Brisbane based on the land size.”

The house is across the river from New Farm Park and Brisbane Powerhouse.

A Brisbane property price record was set last year with the sale of a heritage-listed home at 32 Sutherland Avenue, Ascot, for $23 million. The second-highest sale of 2024 was a riverfront property at 46 Gordon Street, Hawthorne, that changed hands for just over $20 million.

Hackett says some prospective buyers recall the parties hosted by Lloyd. “He had a speed boat that would go under the house and park, and you could then go up into the house from there. It was like something out of James Bond,” she says.

She has met Lin’s parents, describing them as “incredibly humble”. “His mother is very attached to the home,” she says.

Another riverfront Norman Park property in the Lin family name sold in 2021. That property was sold in near-new condition.

Lin, who occupies only a small part of Le Rivage, concedes it needs extensive renovation.

The mansion, once a symbol of wealth and status, is now an echo of the hedonistic 1980s.

Cracks in the exterior walls, and one of the 12 security cameras.

Much of the interior remains frozen in time. There are large cracks in the exterior walls. Roots from the soaring fig trees along the perimeter have damaged parts of the grounds.

Cleaners and gardeners come weekly, but “I haven’t spent too much money on renovation”, Lin says.

“The problem being, I’m there all by myself now and my business has been keeping me very busy.”

Lin, who has a bachelor of commerce from the University of Queensland, says his business is student accommodation. He adds that he has been contracted by the government on immigration matters for the past 19 years, although this masthead has been unable to verify his business interests.

“I’m blessed to be living in a property of this size, but … it takes a lot of time to maintain it, let alone renovate it,” he says.

He also says his parents made a promise to Lloyd to keep the house as he designed it. “It was a gentleman’s agreement between them. My parents kept their promise.”

The front gates of the pink mansion on Wynnum Road, beneath the towering fig trees.

It is a promise he says he has honoured. “Everything remains. I haven’t changed anything.”

Lin says Lloyd tried not once, but three times to buy the property back before he died aged 85 in 2023.

“I grew up in the house, obviously I’m attached to it,” Lin says. “There’s a lot of very good memories here.”

However, he admits he is not a fan of the pink exterior. He says the house was originally a “mushroom, creamy” colour that changed dramatically under the harsh Queensland sun.

“In some parts of the house you can still see the original mushroom colour. It’s sort of towards the bottom of the house – the parts that haven’t been touched by the sun.”

The property was bought by Konrad Lin’s parents for $6.8 million in 1994 - a record sale price in Brisbane at the time.

He fears that if he sells, a buyer will raze the mansion, which is not heritage-listed, and build apartments, or gut the unique interior.

“Then all the money invested in the property will be in vain,” he says.

But there is another complicating factor. “I would not accept an offer without my parents’ permission, as is customary in Taiwanese culture,” he says. “They are always going to be the head of the family.”

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Lin’s father made his fortune in Taiwan working in construction and property development and went on to make lucrative investments in real estate and a tuna fishing business, before the family immigrated to Brisbane.

They lived in Calamvale on Brisbane’s southside before their desire for a more luxurious home led them to the opulent, riverside mansion.

Lin recalls a plaque on the sweeping staircase in the foyer featuring Lloyd’s initials KBL was pivotal in his parents’ decision to buy.

Part of the front driveway of the property.

The golden letters read more like KLB due their positioning on the plaque, which Lin says his parents felt stood for “Konrad Lin Building” – a good omen.

They purchased the house in his name in the hope it would secure a better future in Australia for their children.

“I believe it has brought us gold luck,” Lin says. “It brings good chi.”

Lin’s parents have since returned to Taiwan, while his two younger sisters Lulu and Lily – both lawyers – reside in Hong Kong.

Don Stallman was the real estate agent enlisted by Lloyd and who brokered the deal with Lin’s parents. Stallman declined to be interviewed, but on LinkedIn he has described the detail inside the pink mansion as extraordinary.

“In my humble opinion, this remarkable home is almost certainly Brisbane’s premiere residence. Few people have ever been inside to dispute my claim, but during the marketing campaign, I got to know her very well,” Stallman writes.

“The ceiling of the expansive drawing room was painted over more than a year by an artist brought over from Italy, who like Da Vinci [sic] at the Sistine Chapel spent a year or more lying on his back on top of a five-metre-high scaffold.

“The massive bath in the main bathroom was carved by hand from a 10-tonne block of marble, dropped in by a gigantic crane and placed on chocks before the roof went on.”

Stallman goes on to write that he was saddened to see the state of the house.

“It makes me terribly sad to see the unattended cracks in the walls, the dust and mould everywhere … and the decaying, once-proud jetty.”

Three years ago, two young trespassers managed to capture a rare glimpse inside the pink mansion.

A video they posted online reveals a room like Stallman remembers: chandeliers hang from the soaring ceiling and the walls are covered in ornate, gold-trimmed mouldings. But the room is largely empty.

Lin is pursued by real estate agents regularly, but he insists he is not “actively looking” to sell and has never listed the property.

In one breath he says: “I’m not in a position to sell.”

In the next, he says: “Everything’s for sale at the right price.”

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