Trophy Homes: Dreamworld’s John Longhurst sells Mermaid Beach lot

Dreamworld co-founder John Longhurst has pocketed a $5 million windfall on his vacant Mermaid Beach land parcel.

Miramar on the Mornington Peninsula.

Dreamworld co-founder John Longhurst has pocketed a $5 million windfall on his vacant Mermaid Beach land parcel. But it’s taken nearly three decades of ownership. Longhurst paid $1.02m for the 607sq m Hedges Avenue block in 1989. Longhurst, who lives at Hope Island, has now flipped it for about $6.2m off-market to local entrepreneur Michael Brosnan, who’s quickly moved to install a seawall. Longhurst, considered one of the Gold Coast’s most successful businessmen, sold Dreamworld in 1989 for $180m. He sold his remaining share in Gold Coast shopping centre Logan Hyperdome in 2013 for $350m.

Muir returns to Mornington

Good Guys boss Andrew Muir has emerged as the mystery buyer of Miramar, the stunning Flinders house built by Daniel and Danielle Besen. Settlement records show Muir paid
$17m for the Wood Marsh-designed house that was described as “land art by the sea” by its selling agent, Peninsula Sotheby’s International Realty agent Rob Curtain. The award-winning house features a sunken living pod and seven bedrooms, five bathrooms, a study, exercise room and a two-level master wing. The wings were inspired by the boomerang. The purchase marks a return to the Mornington Peninsula for Muir, who briefly owned the now-demolished Guilford Bell-designed, late 1950s Baillieu House at Sorrento. The Besens pocketed $43m in two sizeable property sales in six months, having also sold their Toorak new build for $26.25m — a Victorian state record, topping former Computershare director Michele O’Halloran’s $26m sale of Ilyuka at Portsea in 2010 to John Higgins. Muir has owned some of Melbourne’s special homes. In 2007, he broke the state record when he spent $17.75m on another former Baillieu family home, which was sold by businessman Steve Vizard,who had paid $5.25m in 2002. Muir has also previously owned National Trust-listed mansion Chandos in East Melbourne as well as Crathre House, a nearby two-storey Italianate Victorian mansion built in the 1870s.

Kelly gives sale the green light

Nissan racing driver Rick Kelly is selling Amanpuri, his luxury beachfront house in Carrum, southeast of Melbourne. Kelly, who is competing in the Virgin Australia Supercars Championship, has owned the Nepean Highway house since 2007, when he paid $2.24m. Designed by architect Graham Jones, the two-level home has views over Port Phillip Bay. The home on 1100sq m has three bedrooms, three bathrooms and an abundance of outdoor living space with an upper-level balcony, lower-level al fresco area with pizza oven and a heated saltwater pool. It has a price guidance of between $3.3m and $3.6m for its August 5 auction through Ray White Chelsea agent Janine Foy. Kelly won the 2006 V8 Supercars Championship and the Bathurst 1000 in 2003 and 2004.

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