Peter Drake's Mermaid Beach mansion sells for $7.35 million
There were six bidders when the Mermaid Beach, Queensland home of LM Investment Management founder Peter Drake sold at weekend auction.
On its initial listing, Oceanview had ambitious $20 million price hopes which ranked among the highest prices paid for a home on the Gold Coast. No one is too sure of the cicumstances regarding the reputed onetime $37 million valuation.
But the mortgagees of Mr Drake’s property were prepared to accept $7.35 million through McGrath agents James Ledgerwood and John Natoli who took over the marketing in August after it had been on the market for almost four months. They had reported $9 million revised hopes.
The property was announced on the market at $7.3 million with two higher bids lodged.
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The six bedroom, eight bathroom Paul Uhlmann-designed house which appeared in the book Beach Houses Down Under has a 25-metre beach frontage.
There was an entertaining level with bar, gym and cellar, and a home theatre with a dance floor.
Equating to around $4,500 a square metre, the modern mansion on its 1600 square metre Albatross Avenue millionaires' row holding was featured on the television show Great Australian Sandcastles.
The property is mortgaged to ANZ, so the 12,000 investors whose savings were frozen when LM Investment Management collapsed are unlikely to share in the proceeds.
There has been only two sales at $5 million of higher in the past 17 months at Mermaid Beach, including $7.3 million on Surf Street in April last year. The strip's top sale was $19 million in 2006 with an $18 million sale in 2009.
Last week the Supreme Court of Queensland ordered the surrender of the passport of LM Investment Management founder Peter Drake.
Following application by ASIC, the court also froze his assets as ASIC’s investigation into the collapsed Gold Coast-based fund manager continues.
LM Investment Management went into administration in March 2013, with the company responsible for managing at least $750 million on behalf of almost 12,000 investors in Australia and overseas.
The Supreme Court of Queensland made interim orders last week which include preventing Mr Drake from travel out of Australia.
