Scott Perrin: Big property plan for former Billabong and Mermaid Beach figure
A key player in the success of Billabong who ignited a boom in Mermaid Beach oceanfront land prices 20 years ago is making a major sea change.
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‘FARMER’ Scott Perrin, a fellow who ignited a boom in Mermaid Beach oceanfront land prices at the start of the new millennium, is poised to open a fresh chapter in life.
The 58-year-old former Chevron Island lawyer, who was instrumental in surfwear company Billabong listing on the ASX, left the beach seven years ago after selling his Mermaid home for $25 million.
Scott and wife Rachel headed south to Victoria and created a new life.
They bought 106ha on the banks of the Goulburn River, land on which they’ve created a farm and rural escape called Levuka.
The property’s just gone on to the market and is forecast to bring around $14 million.
The Perrins are heading into Melbourne in what appears to be a ‘don’t let life pass you by’ move.
Former model Rachel is out to convert a warehouse into a residential property and Scott has nautical ambitions.
He’s hoping to buy a large boat, base it in Darwin, and test his sea-legs exploring the coast of northern Australia in three or four-week stints.
It will provide some family time with son Tim, 27, who is a scientist with the CSIRO based in Darwin.
Scott caused giant property waves on the Gold Coast in 2000, three months after the Billabong float.
He sent beachfront prices at Mermaid Beach sweeping to a new high when he paid $6.6 million for more than 2000 sqm of beachfront land.
The sellers were two property figures who had family homes on the Albatross Avenue blocks, PRD joint founder Gordon Douglas and developer the late Brian Ray.
Both men apparently were reluctant sellers but yielded to the size of the Perrin offers.
The deals set fire to beachfront prices in the suburb, which kept climbing until the GFC hit in 2008.
Scott went on to add a dry block to his holding and build Tidemark, a mansion for which he reportedly knocked back a $52 million offer during the 2007 boom.
The property was sold to billionaire Manny Stuhl, the man behind the Shopkins toy craze, in 2016.
Meanwhile, the home that the Perrins are selling in the Victorian countryside is in an area dotted with wineries and major horse studs.
It’s hardly surprising that it drew Scott, who at one-time was a thoroughbred owner and had his first win on the Gold Coast in 1985 with a horse called Tear Jerker.
The Perrins’ Levuka homestead was designed by Rachel, who has an artistic flair, and was intended as a weekend retreat.
Melbourne lockdowns in response to the Covid pandemic saw the Perrins move to the property full-time.
It comes with five bedrooms, a secret garden behind a near 90-metre long stone wall, a heated infinity pool and spa, guest accommodation, and a riverfront jetty and boat ramp.
Scott’s been able to taste all sides of the mixed-use farm, from drenching cattle to stacking hay bales and greasing a tractor.
Rachel, meanwhile, has founded an anti-ageing clinic, Elucell, and it’s going gangbusters.
The Elucell offerings include the use of dissolving threads under the skin to lift areas of the face and body.
It’s not known whether Scott has been a customer.
SOUTHERN COMFORT
JOHN Potter, almost an old-timer in the Gold Coast property scene, and a Sydney partner have spent $73 million topping up their housing land pipeline in Melbourne.
The Mermaid Beach-based John, along with Phil George, has picked up land for 455 lots in the Oaklands estate at Bonnie Brook, 28km from the Melbourne CBD.
The move, which comes eight months after a $76 million buy in another suburb, takes the partners’ housing-lot pipeline in Melbourne to 1300.
WIN SOME, LOSE SOME
WENXING Ma, revealed last week as spending $13.51 million on a Chevron Island site approved for two high-rises, previously had a win and a loss when he aimed to build Broadbeach’s tallest tower.
The former owner of a Sovereign Islands home in 2017 paid $8 million for a site in Mary Ave, overlooking the Broadbeach State School grounds, and had plans drawn up for a 94-storey building.
He dropped the idea when the city council frowned on it but went on to sell the land to another Chinese group for $11 million.
NICE LITTLE EARNER
LOUISE Wolbers, daughter of evergreen developer Norm Rix, has topped-up her bank account with the $11.45 million sale of a servo-anchored property at Upper Coomera.
The property, on a 9000 sqm corner site, comes with a car wash and convenience centre developed by her dad and was moved to Louise’s ownership in 2021.
The buyer is the David Di Pilla-run listed HomeCo group which already has a major presence in the suburb that includes Norm’s former Coomera City centre.
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Originally published as Scott Perrin: Big property plan for former Billabong and Mermaid Beach figure
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