A sale 13 years in the making: Mortgage Choice co-founder sells huge northern beaches estate for $40 million

Thirteen years after Mortgage Choice co-founder Peter Higgins put his Marara estate on the Avalon Beach waterfront up for sale for a bullish $40 million, it has sold.

The sale ends one of the longest sales campaigns in Sydney’s history and leaves Higgins not only $40 million richer but retaining ownership of the original homestead and boat shed on a subdivided block.

The Marara estate at Careel Bay has sold for $40 million, leaving the landmark boatshed and house in the ownership of Peter and Rebecca Higgins.Credit: Domain

A well-placed source says the sale was of the remaining 8400-square-metre site and was purchased by a single buyer who plans to build two luxury residences designed by architect Walter Barda, each with a tennis court on about 30 metres of private beach frontage, and with a 10-car garage in at least one dwelling.

Claudio Marcolongo, of LJ Hooker Avalon, has been on the listing since it was first offered to buyers in May 2010, but declined to comment on details of the sale other than to confirm he has sold it.

Peter Higgins co-founded Mortgage Choice with his brother Ron in 1992.Credit:

The buyer remains a mystery, but has lodged their interest on title in a beneficial trust fronted by the luxury building specialist company Pimas Gale headed by Jeremy Hu.

The buyer will be only the third owner of the historic estate on Careel Bay.

In 1930 it was purchased as the retreat of gynaecologist Sir Herbert Schlink, who founded the King George V Memorial Hospital in Camperdown, and passed to his wife Meg Mulvey after he died in 1962.

It was listed in 2001 for $12 million following Mulvey’s death that year.

Two years later, and more than 80 years after Schlink first built his timber cottage on the site, Higgins purchased what was a 1.1-hectare site in 2003 for $15 million, later adding an extra 1020-square-metre parcel for $3.2 million.

That same year Higgins purchased the property he and his brother Ron debuted on the BRW Rich List worth an estimated $100 million, thanks to their mortgage broker business Mortgage Choice.

The Marara estate has been subdivided, leaving the 8400-square-metre portion to be sold for $40 million.Credit: Domain

Throughout the 13-year sales campaign of Marara it has been billed the largest privately held estate on the northern beaches waterfront.

The asking price was discounted to $30 million in 2017, and later reports suggested a $26 million asking price, but when it didn’t sell it was subdivided into 11 lots with DA approval for an architect Mark Hurcum-designed residence on each lot.

Higgins retained two of those lots, and the remaining lots were hoped to total $37 million to $40 million in total sales. Fortunately for Higgins the subdivision never sold either, paving the way for the mystery buyer to take the lot in one line.

Higgins is also proving a patient vendor of his Richmond property, the Sydney Polo Club. It was listed initially with a $75 million asking price in 2019, but floods and the pandemic have stymied the sales campaign and the 115-hectare property is now being offered for $50 million.

Settlement will reveal if the sale of Marara tops the reported $40 million northern beaches house price record set by former garbo Ian Malouf last year when he purchased on Snapperman Beach at Palm Beach.