Hedges Ave: Melbourne family pay eye-watering cost for Millionaire’s Row beach shack

A Melbourne family will pay millions for a beach shack on Millionaires Row, but it’s what they plan to do with it that’s got people talking.

A MELBOURNE family that plans to move to the Gold Coast is paying more than $10 million for adjoining “knockdown” properties in Mermaid Beach’s Multi-Millionaires’ Row.

The agent who handled the sale, Tony Velissariou, yesterday said the deal was the latest example of some of the nation’s wealthiest families targeting the Mermaid beachfront.

He would not name the buyers.

GOLD DEVELOPMENT: FURY OVER HEDGES AVE DUPLEX

67 and 69 Hedges Ave on "Millionaires Row" at Mermaid Beach have been listed for sale. Photo: Supplied

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Valuer Tod Gillespie said the $10.3 million sale showed land prices in the Mermaid beachfront strip were heading back toward pre-GFC levels, when $13 million was paid for a double lot.

“It’s only 15 months ago that billionaire Clive Palmer paid $12 million for a double-lot property that came with a very large multi-level home that’s only 13 years old,” he said.

The 67-69 Hedges Ave properties that have sold – a former beach shack and an aged building with two units – are to make way for a new family home.

69 Hedges Ave, Mermaid Beach.

WHAT DEVELOPERS HAVE PLANNED FOR FORMER KATIE PAGE SITE

They form an 810sq m site and have been sold by long-time drilling industry figure Peter Mitchell and wife Dee as part of a retirement move.

They paid $200,000 for the beach shack 38 years ago and $5 million for the unit building in 2005.

Mr Velissariou, principal of the Tony V agency, said they “refreshed” the shack and lived in it for a many years, but both properties today were tenanted.

“Big-hitters from everywhere looked at the properties,” he said.

67 Hedges Ave, Mermaid Beach.

“Some of Australia’s richest families are scouring property at Mermaid – there’s an unsatisfied demand.”

Herron Todd White director Mr Gillespie said buyers were prepared to pay a premium of $1 million a lot to secure side-by-side sites.

“After the GFC single lots headed down toward $3 million,” he said.

“This latest sale shows how much values have risen.

“For example, the price for what will be bare land can be compared to the $12 million that developer John Potter achieved in his sale to Clive Palmer and that buy came with a tasteful mansion that probably cost millions to build.”