$5m deal at heart of Ben Hunt’s next big move
It’s the $5m deal that sits at the centre of the NRL’s biggest offseason transfer of Ben Hunt.
Ben Hunt has around $5m worth of investments on the line, as he tosses up his future in the NRL and where he will play in 2025 and 2026.
A number of clubs have lined up for the Hunt’s signature after he parted ways with St George Illawarra last week, exiting the joint venture with one-year remaining on his big-money deal.
As the likes of the Broncos, Titans, Dolphins, Knights and Bulldogs appear set to fight it out for the Queensland and Australia representative to wear their jersey next NRL season, where Hunt owns homes might give a strong hint as to the club to where he will land.
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The 34-year-old made something of a splash earlier this year when he bought in Newrybar, near Bangalow in the Byron Bay hinterland.
The star playmaker and his nutritionist wife Bridget bought a holiday letting home on acerage for $2.7m in May.
The finalised sale was belatedly thrust into the heart of NRL salary cap claims.
The 20ha property had been a luxury farm stay in the portfolio of local entrepreneur Norm Black, the then co-owner of Dragons sponsor TripADeal, and his accommodation superhost wife Fiona.
It had been initially listed at $2,950,000 after the Blacks had renovated the three-bedroom homestead following its $1.9m purchase in 2021 from Transport NSW.
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It became part of their Black Cockatoo Retreats portfolio that includes farmstays in Coorabell and Bangalow. Rented at just shy of $1500 a night, the house has four bedrooms with two living areas, with views to Mount Warning
The Blacks added a hot tub next to the swimming pool. There is a four-bay machinery shed with a self-contained studio.
The are 3000 macadamia trees on the block.
According to The Daily Telegraph: The Dragons insisted there were no salary-cap issues following revelations Queensland Origin star Ben Hunt purchased the multimillion-dollar property from a club sponsor.
St George Illawarra sponsor Black declared the club had nothing to hide over his sale of a $2.7 million home to Dragons skipper Hunt.
“There’s no cap issues at all – any suggestion of that is nonsense,” Black told the publication.
The Daily Telegraph reported the NRL had no plans to investigate the matter.
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That Bangalow home would be out of touch as a main residence if Hunt signed with a Sydney or Brisbane or Gold Coast club. But if he joined one of the teams based in Brisbane or the Gold Coast, Hunt and the family could use it as a weekend getaway.
The Hunts have called Caringbah South home since 2019, when they paid $1.61m for a 2010 architect-built Queenslander-style four-bedroom home there in Sydney’s south, during his first season with the Dragons.
Given home prices across the country have risen 40 per cent since 2000, that home would likely be worth around $2.3m now.
The Hunts would not have to move out of that home if he signs with a Sydney team.
Hunt still owns a property in Bridgeman Downs, northwest of Brisbane, that is a four-bedroom, two-bathroom rental.
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It was up for rent last year at $825 a week, having been initially leased at $670 a week. He built it in 2014, having paid $375,000 for the 500sq m block a year earlier. It’s capital growth would also have been significant over the past 10 years.
Given Hunt has said it would be ‘special’ to return to the Broncos, the club he left after the 2017 season and who he lost the 2015 Grand Final with, the feeling is there is unfinished business there.
And his northwest Brisbane home might hold the real clue about his future destination, given he would not have to upend his life too much to move there and it is his home state.
The Rockhampton-born Hunt is expected to finalise his future over the next fortnight after he leaves the Kangaroos camp after their Pacific Championship final against Tonga at Sydney’s CommBank Stadium on Sunday.
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