Victoria’s best beach houses: The top 25 properties, from Anglesea to Sorrento
From a Great Ocean Rd landmark to a Phillip Island estate with its own surf break, these are the state’s most jaw-dropping beach houses.
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From a Great Ocean Rd landmark, to a Phillip Island estate with its own surf break and a pastel pink clifftop mansion ideally positioned for whale watching, Victoria is spoiled with seriously swell beach houses.
The Herald Sun real estate team has unearthed 25 of the best from across the state’s coastlines, including private escapes and luxury holiday rentals – for those with deep enough pockets.
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1. The Pole House, Fairhaven
Available to rent from $895 per night
The most photographed home on the famed Great Ocean Rd for good reason, the landmark Pole House is suspended 40m above Fairhaven Beach, supported by a single steel pole and an attached walkway. Originally crafted by architect Frank Dixon in the ’70s, the icon was faithfully rebuilt in 2012 under the guidance of F2 Architecture. Holiday-makers who stay there these days wake up to the sounds of crashing waves, opening their eyes to an uninterrupted ocean outlook that’s on show via walls of windows.
2. Munbilla, Walkerville
Last sold for $5.5m in November 2020
The remote Morgans Beach effectively serves as a private haven for the residents of this five-bedroom beauty near Wilsons Promontory. A walking track from the 2.9ha property offers quick access to the beach, which the public can only access via a lengthy hike, and where great surfing, fishing and seafood like abalone and mussels await. Munbilla’s second-to-none perch high above Cape Liptrap Coastal Park also provides spectacular coastal views.
3. Trenavin Park, Ventnor
Last sold for $8.15m in August 2020
A private beachfront with its own surf break forms part of Trenavin Park – Phillip Island’s first homestead and still one of its most outstanding properties. Breathtaking views across the ocean are also on offer from the 33.76ha estate, which was settled in 1842. Christie’s Prestige Homes’ Sean Cussell, who sold Trenavin Park in 2020, labelled it “the ultimate Australian beachfront rural property”. “The new owner can enjoy a short stroll across the paddock to the beach for a surf, or catch a fish before breakfast,” he said.
4. Ilyuka, Portsea
Last sold for $26m in December 2010
The most expensive house in Victoria’s most expensive beachside suburb, Portsea, Ilyuka also held the statewide residential price record for six years following its $26m sale to shrewd investor John Higgins in 2010. The 31-room clifftop mansion was built in 1928 in Spanish Mission style for a Texas oil tycoon, and more recently refreshed and extended by Rob Mills Architecture. Its more than 7000sq m landholding also features a tennis court, private steps to Point King beach and access to a private jetty.
5. Fairway to heaven, Barwon Heads
Last sold for $10.2m in November 2010
A prized position between the ocean and Barwon Heads Golf Club catapulted this property to a record sale for the Geelong region in late 2020, worth $10.2m. The rammed earth and Mt Angus sandstone house, designed by award-winning architects Swaney Draper, overlooks the first six holes of the famous link course and is surrounded by native gardens. A walking track leads straight from its secluded road to nearby 13th Beach.
6. Horizon, Flinders
Last sold for $23.5m in March 2021
Described as being “like a seven-star resort”, Horizon surpassed $17m masterpiece Miramar to become Flinders’ most expensive house in 2021. An international buyer snapped up the new curved concrete home, boasting a 35-seat spa suspended above a resort-style pool, a sauna, gym, wine room, cinema, two kitchens and more than 100m of oceanfront views framed by expansive windows.
7. Mad Max House, Fairhaven
Last sold for $10m in November 2021
Boost Juice founder Janine Allis and her family transformed a former shack on this beachfront site – best known for featuring in the original Mad Max film – into an impressive five-bedroom holiday retreat. It’s one of only two homes on the beach side of the Great Ocean Rd in Fairhaven, and recently fetched $10m. Nestled in the dunes with Crown land on three sides, the 3000sq m property offers a rare combination of uninterrupted coastline views, privacy and direct beach access.
8. Pastel pink palace, San Remo
Last sold for $5,589,999 in December 2020
This daring tri-level mansion, created by architect Ermin Smrekar in the ’80s, enjoys an unrivalled position perched above the rugged cliffs of the San Remo coastline. The occupant can watch migrating whales or simply gaze at the ocean from the 8.58ha property on Punch Bowl Rd, with huge windows ensuring the house makes the most of the vista.
9. St Andrews Beach House, St Andrews Beach
Value not known
With simple beach shacks too often replaced with “oversized structures that are all too literally a home away from home”, Austin Maynard Architects set out to buck the trend with this circular pad. The firm noted it was challenged by the owner to create a “bach” – that is, a “rough and ready beach shack built mostly in the mid century from found and recycled materials”. The award-winning St Andrews Beach House is less than 5m in radius but provides everything a beach house needs, while blending beautifully into its environment.
10. Biscayne, Mt Martha
For sale $7.75m-$8.5m
Designer Kate Walker’s home a few blocks from Mt Martha’s south beach, showcases a “Caribbean Colonial” style rarely seen in Victoria – and it’s up for grabs, with a $7.75m-$8.5m price tag. The luxe and occasionally flamboyant design, inspired the KWD founder’s travels to Florida Keys, features wallpaper by Gucci, Hermes and Ralph Lauren, imported American light fittings and expanses of natural stone and marble. A pool, spa, sunbathing deck and tennis court complete the country club-style grounds.
11. Y House, Wye River
Value not known
Since rising from the ashes of devastating Christmas bushfires in 2015, Y House has been shared between three generations of the one family. Andrew Simpson Architects designed the beach house in a ‘Y’ shape for this reason, allowing for three separate but adjoining wings. The home occupies a steep site between Wye River and Separation Creek, offering gorgeous 270-degree views across Bass Strait, and was short-listed for a 2021 Houses Award.
12. James Bond house, Mornington
For sale $12m-$12.5m
Soak up a sea view from a wraparound infinity pool with an unusual inclusion – an underwater exercise bike – at this clifftop trophy home for sale a short stroll from Mills Beach. And if that’s not luxurious enough, the house is primed for a place in the next James Bond film, featuring its own viewing room for collectable cars where vendor Steve Winchester has put his Ferrari on show.
13. Bluff House, Flinders
Value not known
This Rob Kennon Architects creation was designed to be “compelling but not dominating” – a feat it achieves to coexist with its landscape on the Flinders bluff. The firm notes on its website that a “meeting point of two geologies” cuts the centre of the site, resulting in a landslip-affected zone the architects overcame by submerging part of the house into the ground. Two parallel plates also cantilever off the structure to extend it out over the terrain, maximising coastal views. Expanses of stone and timber craft a natural interior at the brilliant beach house, which was commended at the 2019 Victorian Architecture Awards.
14. Cliff House, Ocean Grove
Value not known
Perched stylishly and sympathetically on the cusp of the beach in Ocean Grove, Cliff House offers the good life in spades. Auhaus Architecture designed the concrete and timber-clad pad to withstand weather conditions on the windswept site and maximise views from Portsea to Lorne. A striking spiral staircase tops off the four-bedroom residence, which was short-listed in the 2020 Victorian Architecture Awards.
15. Hamptons down south, Blairgowrie
Last sold for $9m in April 2021
Five years in the making, this coastal estate’s swish design was inspired by the work of a prominent Hamptons architect. The substantial 7183sq m site’s residence consists of three barn-like structures joined together by walkways. The grounds also feature a pool, a spa, a quarter-size basketball court, a fire pit, a built-in barbecue, an alfresco terrace, and a vegetable and herb garden with a pizza oven and a Spanish grill. The property was the third most-viewed Victorian home on realestate.com.au last year, ultimately selling for $9m.
16. Whites Beach masterpiece, Torquay
Last sold for about $6m in January 2022
Surf Coast architect Lachlan Shepherd has outdone himself with this cool, modern showpiece on Torquay’s foreshore that has just sold for close to $6m. The four-level, three-bedroom home frames ocean views back towards Cosy Corner and offers direct access to Whites Beach via the foreshore reserve across the road. When the southerly is blowing, you can retreat to the comfort of the gallery-style concrete interior, lap up the luxury of the pool and eight-person sauna, or climb the spiral staircase to the rooftop deck.
17. Windform House, Moggs Creek
Available to rent from $1993 per night
Sprawling across 28ha of land right on the beach, alongside a tennis court, a bocce pitch, an in-ground trampoline, a dam with a private jetty and a wood-fired oven, Windform House is a rarity. Add to this a sculptural design that blends with the rugged landscape and is centred around uninterrupted ocean views, and you have a standout in the Great Ocean Rd hamlet of Moggs Creek – known for being home to Brownlow medallist Patrick Dangerfield.
18. Amalfi, Sorrento
Last sold for $12.2m in January 2021
Sit back, relax and transport yourself to Italy’s picturesque coastline from the aptly named ‘Amalfi’ mansion in Sorrento – Victoria, that is. The Mediterranean-inspired home boasts water views, six bedrooms, a pool and a championship tennis court on a sprawling 3037sq m parcel of land. The “off-the-cliff” property is just 500m from Point King Beach and features gardens by Paul Bangay.
19. Cumulus House, Wye River
Value not known
The classic Aussie fibro beach shack is celebrated and enhanced in Chris Connell Design’s Cumulus House in Wye River. Described on the Houses Awards 2021 shortlist as a “restrained coastal retreat” that is both “intensely private and outward looking”, the modernism-inspired pad’s steep hillside site and northern orientation allow it to take full advantage of 180-degree views towards Bass Strait and the Separation Creek valley.
20. Clifftop glory, Ocean Grove
Last sold for $6.65m in January 2021
Forget fighting for a car park when the summer crowds descend on Ocean Grove – the sand is only a few metres from the front door of this six-bedroom home. An uninterrupted vista spanning from Point Lonsdale lighthouse to Barwon Heads Bluff is on offer from the pad, where you can entertain on one of two huge terraces overlooking the water or by the sheltered north-facing pool. You can also fit up to eight cars in the impressive garage on the self-contained lower level that’s also has a gym.
21. Gippsland’s coastal finest, Inverloch
Last sold for $3.75m in April 2021
Beachfront luxury on the Gippsland coastline doesn’t get much better than this Inverloch beauty, which is just metres from the ocean. The holder of the town’s residential price record, at $3.75m, enjoys vistas across Anderson Inlet to Point Smythe and beyond. Set on a 1115sq m block and sprawling across two storeys with multiple living areas, the substantial property also features a pool overlooking the shoreline.
22. Ocean House, Lorne
Last sold for $4.8m in December 2020
Prominent architect Rob Mills created a slice of beachside bliss at his holiday home on Lorne’s fringe and went on to sell it for $4.8m – substantially above his $3.65m-$4m asking price. The six-bedroom house among the trees has been hailed “one of Australia’s finest beachside residences”, offering an unusually large 1.29ha of land to enhance its seclusion and a circular rooftop sun terrace with sea views and an outdoor bath.
23. Knockout beach house, St Andrews Beach
Last sold for $4m in March 2017
Walls of windows put the St Andrews Beach coastline on show from this contemporary house built by leading boxing promoter and developer Brian Amatruda. Set on 2678sq m of sand dunes and commanding unobstructed Bass Strait views, the pad includes an outdoor pool that seeps into the living room. When Mr Amatruda sold the property in 2017, leading Mornington Peninsula agent Liz Jensen, of Kay & Burton, described it as occupying “the best ocean setting” she’d seen.
24. Surf Coast specialty, Jan Juc
Last sold for $5.5m in January 2019
A clifftop position above the popular Steps surf break delivers unrivalled ocean views stretching back to the Port Phillip Heads from this eye-catching four-bedroom home on a huge 4901sq m site. The Surf Coast Walk passes by the garden gate so you can reach nearby Bells Beach or the patrolled Jan Juc beach on foot.
25. Logans Beach house, Warrnambool
Last sold for an undisclosed price in October 2021 (listed for $1.8m)
Try your luck at spotting a whale, or take a walk along your own private beach track from this seaside Warrnambool home. Perched atop a sand dune, the three-bedroom property includes an upstairs glass viewing room with panoramic views of the Southern Ocean and Victoria’s famed whale breeding grounds. Meanwhile, an exclusive walking track leads directly to Logans Beach below.
Source of prices: CoreLogic
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