Chemist Warehouse billionaire buys glam $33.5m Byron Bay house in cash

Days before Chemist Warehouse sealed the deal on a historic $30 billion merger with Sigma Healthcare in a low-key suburban pub in Melbourne, one of its own directors Damien Gance and his wife Sasha Robertson quietly inked a record-breaking deal of their own in Byron Bay.

The couple, who own 39 pharmacies between them, have emerged as the $33.5 million cash buyers of the spectacular luxury house known as Malia on Belongil Beach.

Damien and Sasha have reset the Byron Bay record with their $33.5 million cash purchase.Credit:

Damien Gance, who is a qualified pharmacist, was the very first Chemist Warehouse franchisee in 2000. But as the son of Sam Gance, one of the founders of Chemist Warehouse, it was always going to be in his DNA to further cement his stake in the pharmacy giant.

Damien has been part of the team responsible for the company’s rise ever since as he went on to become the chief commercial officer of Chemist Warehouse before the merger. His appointment to the board of directors and executive team of the merged group, with an annual salary of almost $674,000, was proposed to shareholders in an announcement late last year.

But it is his shareholding in the merged company that turned the Melbourne-based pharmacist into a billionaire on paper overnight when the merger was done and dusted a little over a week ago.

Damien GanceCredit: Oscar Colman

So it is no wonder he and his wife were able to comfortably purchase the home of property developer and McGrath director Shane Smollen and his wife Rebecca that took three years to rebuild.

The Mediterranean-inspired five-bedroom, six-bathroom house was conceived by Melbourne’s esteemed Workroom Design. The 2097-square-metre beachfront block, mere steps from the sand, was the final land holding in the Belongil Beach estate of entertainers John ‘Strop’ Cornell and Delvene Delaney who both starred on The Paul Hogan Show.

The sale resets Byron Bay’s house price record, which was held by a Wategos waterfront known as Watermark that sold for $30 million in late 2023 to Brisbane developer Adam Flaskas.

It sold through Nick Dunn of McGrath Byron Bay and Ed Silk of Ed Silk Byron Bay who both declined to comment.

Gance and Robertson reside in Melbourne’s posh Toorak neighbourhood, paying $5.8 million for their five-bedroom mansion in 2011.

Third time lucky

With one family’s arrival is another’s departure. GemLife chief executive Adrian Puljich and his wife Jessica have relaunched for a third time their Coopers Shoot property with a price guide of $27.5 million to $30 million.

The Puljichs only bought into the Byron shire some two years ago when they paid $22 million for the property known as Hercules. No major improvements have been made to the five-bedroom, four-bathroom house which sits on over five hectares of immaculately kept grounds.

But the asking price is a discount from when they first listed the luxury acreage in 2023 with expectations of $35 million, which at the time would have meant it rose in value by more than $1 million every month since they bought it.

The Coopers Shoot property has returned to market guiding $27.5 million to $30 million.Credit:

One of only five tightly held properties along the ridgeline, the hinterland home is being sold in an expression of interest campaign through McGrath Byron Bay’s Nick Dunn who declined to comment.

Rose Bay discount

Back in Sydney, the trophy home market has clocked another top sale for the year. A sold sticker quietly went up on the home of recycled shopping bag businessman Frank Qiang Geng and Juanjuan Zhao.

While the Rose Bay beachfront had an initial asking price of $75 million, it is understood to have sold closer to its reduced price guide of $55 million in the end, local sources say. The vendor’s $20 million discount was a sign of last year’s times when bullish guides were revised as Sydney’s prestige market was holding out for 2023 prices.

The Rose Bay trophy home is one of the top sales of the year so far.Credit:

It was sold through Pillinger’s Brad Pillinger and Sydney Sotheby’s Michael Pallier who declined to comment when contacted before the listing was taken down altogether before week’s end.

The contemporary three-level house was commissioned by Skype early investor and founder of music downloader Kazaa, Kevin Bermeister and his wife Beverley, who sold it to Geng in 2014 for $26.9 million.

The Bruce Stafford-designed house was only a stepping stone for Geng. He is tipped to be the more than $80 million buyer of Point Piper mansion Rockleigh.

While it is yet to settle, medical specialist Philippa Harvey-Sutton, who inherited the property from her mother Val Rundle in 2016, will have cashed in one of the most expensive house sales in the country.

The family have owned the property for 46 years, purchasing it for $325,000 in 1978. Census data from that time shows Sydney’s median house price was then $43,200.