Mark Richards, Mick Fanning, Doug Warbrick making bank from south Gold Coast retreats

Two surfing world champions, along with a ‘name’ wetsuit maker, have signed up to sell Gold Coast beach retreats into site amalgamations. FULL DETAILS >>>

THE love that top surfers have for southern-end ‘rides’ is paying off big-time in dollars, thanks to the foaming property wave sweeping the Gold Coast.

Two world champions, along with a ‘name’ wetsuit maker, have signed up to sell Coolangatta beach retreats into site amalgamations.

Mark Richards, a four-time champ now in his 60s, already has banked a fat cheque.

Mick Fanning, who has worn the world crown three times and has just spent $3 million on a home near the Currumbin alley surf break, has an even fatter cheque in the pipeline.

Also heading into a wave of dollars is Doug Warbrick, surfer and a founder of the iconic Rip Curl group.

Australian surfing legend Mick Fanning is one of three surfing names who have signed up to sell Coolangatta beach retreats into site amalgamations. Photo: Steve Pohlner

Ironically, their benefactor is another surfer – Brisbane developer Paul Gedoun.

He’s a partner in developer Pointcorp, which is chopping former private golf course The Villa at Nerang into a housing estate.

The father of two, adept on a snowboard, ‘discovered’ surfing while staying at Rainbow Bay six years ago.

The upshot was that he decided to undertake a solo project and set out to amalgamate a six-unit building overlooking Rainbow Bay, an exercise that cost him around $12 million.

Mark ‘MR’ Richards was one of the owners and he was receptive to a Gedoun offer.

He’d bought into Rainbow’s End for $32,500 in 1983 and last year walked away with $2.05 million.

Mark ‘MR’ Richards bought into Rainbow’s End for $32,500 in 1983 and last year walked away with $2.05 million. Photo: Jeff Divine Photo Contributed

There have been suggestions that he might become an owner in Flow, the sellout boutique tower that is being built on the Rainbow’s End site.

The Mick Fanning-Paul Gedoun ‘business’ relationship is based around Boundary St, a quick stroll from Rainbow Bay and other surf hot spots.

Mick in 2005-06 spent $2.59 million buying a pair of adjoining properties, one with a 1945-built house on it and the other occupied by a slightly more modern one – it was built in 1950.

They have become part of 2424sq m site on which Paul and his S & S group is planning a twin-building project called Esprit.

Artist impression of Esprit, the third tower planned for Coolangatta by developer Paul Gedoun's S & S projects for a site on Boundary Street.

The Fanning titles are two of three in a row which Mick accumulated in Boundary St – he bought the other, a duplex, for $3.1 million in 2007 and sold it in February for $2.826 million.

That’s the same month that he swooped, before auction, on a property fronting Currumbin Creek and snared it before auction with a $3 million offer.

The house has a bonus — an indoor skate ramp.

The Queensland-born Doug Warbrick, who opened a Bells Beach surf shop in 1967 and helped found Rip Curl two years later, bought a Coolangatta home for $1.45 million at auction in 2009.

It’s in Ward St, which runs off Boundary St, and has become part of the Gedoun amalgamation.

Doug, nicknamed Claw, is believed to be tipping some, or all, of his sell-off proceeds into an apartment, in Esprit, where the $3.7 million penthouse already is taken.

It will be a building in which he’ll be able to keep fit and to recuperate after a hard day on the waves – it will include a rooftop area with gym, yoga lawn, remedial treatment room, ice bath, infra-red sauna, and steam rooms.

Then, if he feels like a coffee, he’ll be able to trot up to Point Danger and have one at the new cafe D’Bah, which is being included in another Gedoun tower, Awaken, on the site of the old cafe.

Originally published as Mark Richards, Mick Fanning, Doug Warbrick making bank from south Gold Coast retreats