Gold Coast real estate: Former Perrin mansion sells for astonishing price

The former family mansion of disgraced Billabong International CEO Matthew Perrin has sold for eight figures, setting a record for an elite Gold Coast riverfront enclave.

THE former family mansion of disgraced Billabong International CEO Matthew Perrin has sold for $12.45 million, setting a record for the elite Surfers Paradise riverfront enclave Cronin Island.

The 15 Southern Cross Drive property, which became one of the Gold Coast’s most controversial homes, has been by bought by a Chinese buyer from Sydney who intends using it as a permanent home.

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Former Billabong owner Matthew Perrin's former Cronin Island mansion at 15 Southern Cross Drive. Photos: Supplied

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The price is more than double the $6.1 million seller Terry Gavan, head of EMACS Electrical, paid in 2012.

When Mr Gavan purchased 15 Southern Cross Drive eight years ago it ended a wrangle between the Commonwealth Bank and Nicole Perrin, the ex-wife of the later-jailed Mr Perrin.

The bank sought to seize the property in a bid to recover a $13.5 million debt owed by Mr Perrin after he filed for bankruptcy in 2009.

Ms Perrin won in court, arguing that her then-husband had forged her name on loan documents.

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The mansion has sold for more than $12 million. Photos: Supplied

Mr Perrin was jailed, receiving an eight-year sentence in January 2017, for forging his ex-wife and brother’s signatures to scam $13.5 million from the Commonwealth Bank.

Mr Perrin, since released, was labelled by a judge at the time as being remorseless for crimes he committed when the lavish life he had been living on the Gold Coast began unravelling.

The Cronin Island house, across two lots, includes seven bedrooms, eight bathrooms, a 2000-bottle temperature-controlled wine cellar, and garaging for 12 cars.

Former Billabong owner Matthew Perrin's former Cronin Island mansion at 15 Southern Cross Drive. Photos: Supplied

Michael Kollosche, who sold the property with the Kollosche agency’s Ryan Ward, yesterday said the sale was achieved 10 days after a marketing push was launched.

Cronin Island, accessed off Chevron Island, has 33 homes and it has drawn buyers such as Angela Leong, a wife of Macau casino king the late Stanley Ho, who had Nos. 10 and 12. Mr Ho died in May aged 98.

The island’s previous record of $11 million was set in 2016 when a Chinese buyer snaffled a giant home sprawled across three lots and built for former Daikyo International Shuji Yokoyama in the late 1980s.

Mr Kollosche said the sale to Mr Gavan reflected the strength of the top end of the market and for ‘trophy assets’.

“There often are multiple buyers for each property and we’re getting strong offers.”

The year’s residential record stands at $25 million, achieved in April for the beachfront Mermaid Beach home of BreakFree travel founder Tony Smith and wife Simone.

That price matched the figure Mr Perrin’s brother Scott achieved in 2016 when he sold his Tidemark property on the beachfront at Mermaid Beach.