Max Twigg: Businessman and former motorsports figure sells Mermaid Beach villa
A former Gold Coast motorsports figure has made a massive six-figure profit on the sale of his four-level beachfront Mermaid Beach mansion. FIND OUT HOW MUCH
Property
Don't miss out on the headlines from Property. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Max Twigg, whose life has been a rollercoaster since he exited the rubbish business with a bulging wallet, has had a beachfront win – of sorts.
He’s found a buyer for a four-level Mermaid Beach villa he first started trying to sell, at a loss, 15 years ago.
The price being paid, $10.5 million, represents a $500,000 gain on the $10 million the racing driver outlaid in 2007.
It’s more than the $6.95 million he was chasing in 2012 and less than the $12.75 million tag on the property in January.
Max, after allowing for agent commissions and holding costs, is unlikely to be singing from the rooftops over the $10.5 million deal.
That said, the outcome is 10 million times better than one he had in Mermaid’s Hedges Ave in 2008.
That, in dollar terms, was the size of a loss he took mid-GFC when he sold a beachfront house bought four years earlier for $17.5 million from management-rights veteran Frank Picone and wife Adele.
The buyer who paid Max $7.7 million for the home was Avi Silver, a Melbourne billionaire with a penchant for service stations.
The Twigg Mermaid Beach villa that has just sold is a five-bedroom one that isn’t short on luxury.
The home comes with a 22-metre rooftop pool, a lift, cinema, study, and four-car basement garage with turntable.
Prior owners of the property have included property agency principal Michael Kollosche, management-rights player Russell Leary, and Melbourne investor Tim Rice.
Seller Max, when based in Melbourne in the late 90s, expanded a waste-management business started by his late dad and held in a family trust.
It was sold to Cleanaway for $155.8 million in 2007 and Max started investing in the Gold Coast and elsewhere.
He bought Byron Bay’s Beach Hotel for $47 million in 2007 and sold it to a private equity group for $70 million a decade later.
Two years ago it re-sold for $104 million.
The sale of the Twigg Albatross villa comes against the backdrop of what has been a tough run for the GT endurance driver.
That run started with his record $10 million loss on the Mermaid beachfront.
Max, between 2017 and 2019, bought investment properties at Mermaid Beach, Miami and Palm Beach.
A family feud erupted over Max’s use of trust money from the sale of the rubbish business to Cleanaway and ended in court, with Max losing the case in 2020 and a subsequent appeal.
His mother and two sisters won $30 million compensation, including $9 million in cash, some of the investment properties, and a new $650,000 Porsche, registered as Turn One.
Max was back in court two months ago for allegedly assaulting an ex-partner and two others.
He spent two days in custody prior to his first court appearance and the matter returns to court later this month.
Meanwhile, 51-year-old Max’s life in the fast lane – on motor-racing circuits – appears to be on hold.
His GT championship career that started in 2004 has seen him wheel cars such as Porsches, Audis and Mercedes around various tracks and also raced in Asia.
There have been both wins and pole positions.
One of the teams he raced for was Juniper Developments of Surfers Paradise super-tower Soul fame – Shaun Juniper had a home on the Mermaid beachfront when Max moved there.
CRAVING A COAST PAD
ED Craven, a 27-year-old bitcoin billionaire who’s bought the most expensive house in Victoria, has been using a buyer’s agent to hunt for a property on the Gold Coast.
Ed was co-founder of Stake.com, a gambling platform where punters use crypto ‘money’ to gamble, and also started streaming platform Kick.
He spent $80 million last year to buy a home in elite Melbourne suburb Toorak, one that had been empty for years and was described as derelict.
TESTING THE WATERS
STEVE Anderson, a former home-building company principal who’s turned astute property investor, and wife Maree are testing the waters with a major waterfront site at the up-market Paradise Waters estate in Surfers Paradise.
The 1600 sqm point holding at the northeastern end of Admiralty Drive was bought for $8 million in 2021 and plans subsequently prepared for a two-level, five-bedroom home.
The Andersons are believed to be seeking north of $10 million for the land, which has a 65-metre deepwater frontage.
BEACHFRONT FRONTRUNNER
CHRIS Vitale, the developer behind the Mondrian twin-tower hotel and apartment project at Burleigh Heads, is the hot tip in property circles as the frontrunner for 1.62ha of beachfront land on the Southport Spit.
The land, directly south of the Sheraton Grand hotel and in part occupied by the former Golden Door gym, was put on the market last year by the State Government.
Expressions of interest closed in October but there’s been no word on whether the leasehold land has sold.
More Coverage
Originally published as Max Twigg: Businessman and former motorsports figure sells Mermaid Beach villa
First look: New Coast shopping centre for surprise site
A long-empty site in a surprise location will be transformed into a retail showroom complex under fresh plans lodged with the council. FIND OUT WHERE
Revealed: How much rent you need to pay in every Qld suburb
Rents have increased again in 252 Queensland suburbs, reversing the brief downward trend recorded just three months ago. See how your suburb compares!