Hedges Ave, Mermaid Beach: Why rich favour Gold Coast’s Millionaire’s Row
Hedges Ave is the Gold Coast’s famous address. But there is plenty people don’t know about it. This is the real story of Millionaire’s Row. READ WHAT THEY SAID >>>
Property
Don't miss out on the headlines from Property. Followed categories will be added to My News.
IT’S hard to believe but there was once a time you could buy a beachfront house on the Gold Coast’s most exclusive street for less than $1m.
Hedges Ave is the Gold Coast’s most exclusive address, home to mansions, millionaires and sporting stars.
With absolute beachfront access and no high-rises, it is famously known as “millionaire’s row”.
While Hedges Ave has come to prominence in the past 30 years, its history stretches back more than a century.
It was named after William Hedges, a shop owner who moved into real estate after World War I.
He spent much of the 1920s selling blocks of land around what is today called Hedges Ave and at one point owned more than 32 acres across the region.
In 1923 the area went through a significant real estate boom with land values skyrocketing.
Parcels of land Mr Hedges had bought for 50 pounds jumped in value to more than 200 pounds.
He died in 1943 but his legacy would live on, with many of the cross-streets with Hedges Ave now named for he and his family members.
During World War II the scrub-filled land was used as a campsite for US troops, who named it Los Angeles Beach.
By the late 1950s, Broadbeach was beginning to boom, with the construction of the Lennons Hotel and the subdivision of surrounding blocks.
Through the 1970s Cronin Island was the city’s hottest address and was the first location to post a $1m land sale.
But its heyday was brief as the real estate market took off and Hedges Ave became a focal point.
Among those who moved to the area at the time was businessman Terry Jackman.
Born in Brisbane, Mr Jackman bought a beach shack to have a Queensland home while he was based in Sydney.
“I bought my first house on Hedges Ave in 1980 for $200,000,” he told the Bulletin this week.
“It was just a shack, like most of them were at the time, but now there is only a handful left.
“Of course, back in those days people did not know how to build against the conditions.
“One of my neighbours at the time had his family around to his house one Christmas Day and went to his open his fridge, only to have the door fall off because the salt had eaten away at the metal.”
In 1984, the average price for 405sq m beachfront lots in Hedges Ave was $330,000.
A year later a handful of properties surpassed $500,000 mark for the first time.
It rose to $750,000 by the mid-1990s during a period in which Hedges Ave was dubbed “the golden strip”.
By the late 1990s it had been renamed “millionaire’s row”.
In January 2000, a run-down beach cottage on a 405sq m corner site sold for a record $1.34m or $3308 a square metre.
In October 2020, the price per square metre was four times that at $12,098, with a knockdown beach shack on 405sq m selling for $4.9m.
Over the decades Hedges has attracted many of the city’s most famous residents, including developers, sports stars, businessmen and celebrities.
Among those to have called Hedges Ave home are former Australian cricketer Craig McDermott, Olympian Grant Hackett, businessman Clive Palmer and developer Brian Ray.
In the late 1990s some of these power players, including Mr Jackman, joined forces to oppose a proposal by the Gold Coast City Council to create a second seaway through the centre of Hedges Ave to Broadbeach’s canal system.
“It’s like saying there is a problem in Manly and putting a seaway through the Corso,” Mr Jackman said at the time.
“I am trying to find out anywhere else where it is proposed to put a 100 metre-wide seaway through a shopping centre, main road, residential precinct and a domestic street. You have to hand it to the Gold Coast City Council – it would be another first for the region.”
The proposal was knocked on its head.
In recent years Hedges has undergone further changes, including becoming the first street on the Gold Coast to have its speed limit lowered to 30km/h.
Residents have also long opposed plans to extend the Oceanway footpath south of Broadbeach in front of the beachside mansions.
While council is yet to approve the project, it is expected to move forward in coming years as part of the extension of the light rail and improvements to the area’s transport infrastructure.
The biggest change was the council giving the green light to Sunland Group’s $250m 252 Hedges Ave luxury tower, which is now under construction.
Hedges Ave has changed a lot since the 1970s but the desire for its expensive property remains strong among buyers with deep pockets.
REASON RICH-LISTERS CAN’T GET ENOUGH OF HEDGES AVE
HEDGES Ave identities say a lack of high-rise towers and absolute beachfront access are what make the Gold Coast’s most exclusive street a powerful magnet for the rich and famous.
The Mermaid Beach strip is home to some of the nation’s rich-listers, and is famous worldwide for its giant mansions and the incredible real estate deals that got them built.
WHO BOUGHT AND SOLD ON HEDGES AVE
Businessman Terry Jackman bought his first house on Hedges Ave 41 years ago and said much had changed for the street, which was close to the area’s once thriving sand mine.
“My view is that Hedges Ave is no different from most places on the Gold Coast except that it has the access to the beach,” he said.
“The beach and the water are our greatest tourist attractions, never mind the theme parks.
“I bought my first house here for just $200,000 back in 1980 while I was living down in Sydney and it was just a shack then.
“Now there are only a few of those left.”
Leading real estate agent Andrew Henderson said Hedges Ave’s lack of tourists made it even more desirable to high-end buyers.
“It’s one of the few residential absolute beachfront areas on the Gold Coast which is not zoned for tourists at all,” he said.
“Residents can have an absolute beachfront home which is a rare commodity but they also don’t have any high-rises next door.
“On a per-square-metre rate it has to be at the peak for Queensland and it rates highly nationally.
“With most block sizes average at 405 sqm, you’d be hard to topple it as the most expensive pieces of land in the country.
SECRETS BEHIND THE RISE AND RISE OF MEGA-RICH HEDGES AVE
ITS nickname, Millionaire’s Row, says it all — Hedges Ave is the premier address on the Gold Coast, with its glittering beachfront drawing movers and shakers from Australia and beyond for more than 30 years.
The extensive list of people who have bought and sold on Hedges is a veritable roll call of players who have won, lost and then won again in games of business, development and luck on the Gold Coast.
For years, frugal penny pinchers with old money have competed with flashy, cash-splashy newcomers for the 120-odd homes with odd numbers – the beach side – along the 2km avenue.
In 1984 the average price for 405-square-metre beachfront lots in Hedges Ave was $330,000. It rose to $750,000 in the following 10 years.
In January 2000 a run-down beach cottage on a 405sq m corner site sold for a record $1.34 million or $3308 a square metre.
In October last year, the price per square metre was four times that at $12,098, with a knockdown beach shack on 405sq m selling for $4.9m.
While many residents come and go, there are a rare few who resist the pull of an easy buck – including one owner who bought in for $280,000 in 1984 and hasn’t budged since.
Fortunes and stories are varied on Hedges, ranging from billionaires like Clive Palmer, who bought into the street for $12 million in 2018, or Bob Ell, who paid $22.6 million for a five-bedroom mansion in 2020.
Their neighbours include surgeons, lawyers and CEOs of global companies, encased in architect-designed concrete and living side-by-side with weatherboard shacks bought for a couple of hundred thousands and passed through the generations.
Some of the stories are enough to make you wish for time travel, like that of Brian and Janette Gibson, who sold their slice of Mermaid two years ago.
Mr Gibson’s late mother, Barbie, bought the modest home in 1958 for a few thousand pounds, then passed it down to her three sons before Brian and Janette bought out Brian’s brothers for $140,000 in 1985.
The Gibsons lived in the home for 17 years before selling out of the street for $4.4 million.
So, as the Gold Coast enjoys one of its characteristic property booms, who currently has a prime game piece on a square of Hedges?
We have scoured property records, agent listings and newspaper archives to find the most comprehensive guide available.
Auction blog: Home sells for seven times what owner paid
The hot pre-Easter weekend auction action kicked off with a cottage selling for seven times what its owner paid, one of more than dozens of homes set to change hands today as strong demand continues across South East Queensland.
Warnie’s home trend that’s taking over Australia
Shane Warne was ahead of his time on the cricket field and he was ahead of the curve when it came to relaxing away from the game too.