Byron Bay payday looms as rich-lister Robert Bates puts Wategos retreat on block

Wealthy Byron Bay owners are cashing in on surging house prices with serial entrepreneur and rich-lister Robert Bates about to list his Wategos retreat.

Robert Bates is selling his holiday bolthole in Byron Bay.

Wealthy Byron Bay owners are cashing in on surging house prices with serial entrepreneur and rich-lister Robert Bates about to list his Wategos retreat fronting the idyllic NSW north coast.

Median house prices have surged 135 per cent in Byron Bay over the past 10 years according to realestate.com.au and Mr Bates, who is reportedly worth $145m, has listed his holiday bolt­hole at 45 Brownell Drive in the Wategos dress circle.

Mr Bates paid $2.65m for the 1975-built timber clad, brick veneer house in 2018, has since refurbished it and is asking $8m-plus through Byron Bay Real Estate Agency’s Liam Annesley.

Mr Annesley said the four-bedroom house — which will hit the market within days — is positioned on a 664sq m site overlooking Wategos Beach and is being sold because Mr Bates’s business interests are increasingly offshore.

The view from 45 Brownell Drive, Byron Bay.

“He is not the sort of person to lock and leave the house,” Mr Annesley said.

The agent recently sold 37 Brownell Drive, held by long-term local Barbara Smith, for $6.375m. Positioned on 753sq m the four-bedroom double-storey home overlooks Wategos Beach.

“There’s a lot of people around,” said Mr Annesley, adding that the market was rocketing because of low interest rates and the fact that no one can travel offshore. “I can’t see that it is going to slow down,” he said.

The Byron Bay record was recently broken when Brian Singer, a co-founder of Rip Curl, bought Geoff Morgan’s Wategos property for $22m after it was on the market for five days. Melbourne-based Mr Singer bought it sight unseen at the height of the COVID-19 lockdown through Sydney agent Michael Coombs.