Byron Bay prestige market shows signs of life
Amelika, the bespoke Byron Bay hinterland property designed by architect Sharon Fraser in the white-box architectural style, has been sold. It was initially listed with $7 million-plus expectations in late 2009, and more recently marketed with a revised $4.95 million asking price.
It has been bought at an undisclosed price by Sydney businessman Tom Lane and his wife, Emma. Tom is from the Lane family, founders of the Oroton fashion empire, but left the family business about five years ago and runs Quicksmart Homes, which specialises in accommodation modules.
Byron Bay’s prestige market had been slow, with just one sale above $4.75 million in 2010, but in 2011 there have now been several sales including Sussan fashion chain executive chairwoman Naomi Milgrom expanding her holding with a $6.2 million acquisition. The 1,200-square-metre property was adjacent to her $4.75 million acquisition in 2007.
About the same time the 8.49-hectare Broken Head holding of the Smorgon family was sold for $6.3 million to the former WorleyParsons executive Russell Staley.
The Lanes’ acquisition, a single-level house, was built in 2006 on a flat block of land at Federal after the purchase by Fraser’s partner, Steve Esson, in 2005.
Only a 100-year-old cudgerie tree blocks any of the 360-degree views of the northern NSW coastline and surrounds.
The 10-hectare holding comes with two Minimalist sculptures by Melbourne artist Peter McLisky, a bore, windmill and dairy converted to an artist's studio.
There is also an 18-metre pool. It has been available at $7000 plus a week rental.
The building's green initiatives include solar-heated hydronic underfloor heating in its polished-cement floor and on-site waste management. It has retractable shading on external western walls that double as mosquito screens.
Amelika had been listed through Unique Estates agent Nicolette van Wijngaarden.
Melbourne's Smorgon family, who made their fortune in steel manufacturing, sold through Graham Dunn of Byron Bay Property Sales. Melbourne's Smorgon family secured approval for an eight-bedroom, Kerry Hill-designed house. With 460 metres of beachfront, the 8.49-hectare holding had been bought for $5.02 million in 2005 from actor Paul Hogan and long-time colleagues John Cornell and Allan Johnston, who had paid $265,000 in 1983.
It was 2006 when the publishing magnate Stephen Bush and his wife, Rachael, sold their Wategos Beach property for a record-breaking $15.68 million in 2006 to Sydney businessman Danny Goldberg. It then ranked as the best house on Wategos Beach, the small pocket beneath Cape Byron Lighthouse. Wategos House, a six-bedroom colonial-style property, had previously sold at $2.09 million in 2000 when bought by the Bushes. The 1500-square-metre Marine Parade property with a large front lawn overlooking the beach with landscaped tropical gardens had traded at $1770 in the late 1960s.
