Tony Smith’s Gold Coast mansion sale shows huge premium beachfront property commands over riverfront

Two recent Gold Coast mansion sales illustrate the huge difference between buying on the beach and buying on the river.

JOHN Ramsden, go-ahead legal eagle, can’t regret swooping on a giant Isle of Capri riverfront home as the Gold Coast was struggling out of the global financial crisis in 2013.

The property, Riverpoint, had been auctioned by a mortgagee but bidding stopped at $3.9 million.

In came the Kiwi-born John and, in a gutsy move, tabled a $4.1 million offer that was accepted.

Seven years on, and after investing in improvements, he’s sold the three-level La Scala Court mansion for $11.75 million.

1-3 La Scala Court, Isle of Capri. Pictures: Amir Mian.

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It’s a grand price but it also highlights the difference between beachfront and riverfront values in the central Gold Coast.

The $11.75 million Riverpoint is a 1651sq m house on a 2623sq m site on a point and with a 90-metre frontage to the Nerang River.

By contrast, the beachfront family home of BreakFree travel group founder Tony Smith and wife Simone at Mermaid Beach sold last week for a Queensland record-equalling $25 million.

It is more than 600sq m smaller than Riverpoint, on less land at 2112sq m, and has a 40-metre frontage to the beach.

2 Heron Ave, Mermaid Beach may be smaller than Riverpoint but its beachfront location commands a healthy premium.

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The Riverpoint site had a 2018 rateable value of $3 million – the figure for the smaller Smith site was more than four times that at $12.8 million.

The highest price paid for a home fronting the Nerang River is believed to be the $15.5 million paid for a Balinese-style house on The Corso on the Isle of Capri in 2016.

That home was built in the 90s by surfwear industry pioneer Doug Spong and then-wife Mara and had a suggested replacement cost of more than $20 million.

The replacement cost of the Ramsden house was touted as being north of $10 million when it was first marketed in 2009.

Ramsden Lawyers managing partner John Ramsden

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Eventual buyer John, the 42-year-old principal of a burgeoning Bundall law firm that carries the Ramsden name, was no pushover when he sold Riverpoint, reportedly to a couple who own a riverfront Ashmore house.

The first offer was at $9 million but John was resolute and held out until the $11.75 million figure was reached.

John also was bold when he bought Riverpoint, via company Stone Pearl, from mortgagee Suncorp.

His buy was at a time when few people had the courage to invest such sums in a riverfront market still groggy from the GFC.

Tony Smith, founder of the management-rights company Breakfree, has sold his beachfront mansion for $25 million.

The Ramsden ‘courage’ also caused John some pain – he quickly put the then Ramsden family home on the market and took a sizeable loss.

John, who’s been practising law on the Gold Coast for at least 17 years and has expanded his practice into Brisbane and Sydney, bought Riverpoint after previously acquiring three other waterfront properties.

On the heels of the $4.1 million buy, he put a ‘highly renovated’ riverfront Sorrento home on the market and booked a $400,000 loss – one that pales alongside the gain on Riverpoint.

Meanwhile, the executives at Suncorp that ordered the Riverpoint sale in 2013 might well be unsettled by the price John has achieved.

There was speculation that Suncorp wanted a sale before June 30 that year because the result could be better than including the property in a basket of bad loans they were selling to Goldman Sachs for $1.6 billion – or 60c in the dollar.

1-3 La Scala Court, Isle of Capri. Pictures: Amir Mian.

Also unsettled by the latest sale price might be Peter and Kim McQueen who, after selling a Melbourne home for $5.2 million, built Riverpoint then lost it to the mortgagee.