2 Maryland Avenue, Carrara, has sold for $6.2 million.
A grand home dubbed “the original Gold Coast mansion” in the Eighties for its lavish parties and celebrity guests has sold for $6.2 million.
The deal rounded up what has been an exceptional run of prime property sales over the past 12 months for the Gold Coast with the Maryland sale being the biggest in Queensland in the final week of the financial year.
The house is French-provincial style.
Owned by the De Viana Fernandez family, the French-provincial-style home at 2 Maryland Avenue in Carrara has a reputation on the Gold Coast, with a line of high-profile guests passing through its doors during the Eighties, including Whitney Houston and Frank Sinatra, who allegedly stayed there when they came to Australia for the official opening of Sanctuary Cove in 1988.
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The owners spent four years making it as authentic as possible.
Many furnishings were sourced in Europe.
Its sale last week through Kollosche estate agency has been worth the wait for the family, who acquired the home in 2013 from Ian Hofmeier for $1.899 million.
The De Viana Fernandezes relisted it in December after spending four painstaking years and a seven-figure sum turning the property into not only an authentic example of French-provincial design, but a spacious and functional family home.
No expense was spared in its makeover.
No expense was spared in the home’s makeover, which Mrs De Viana Fernandez said included several extensions and an upgrade of the pool and pool house.
Internally everything was replaced or renewed, staying as true to the French-provincial style as possible, with Mrs De Viana Fernandez spending hours scouring online websites for the right fittings, shades and decorative pieces. Many elements were sourced from France, such as the blue paint, to ensure authenticity.
The buyers are a local family who Michael Kollosche, who sold the property alongside colleague Brad Coyne, said had been looking for a large parcel of land along the river for some time.
Its renovation included a revamp of the pool and pool house.
“They had been watching [the property] for a while before finally deciding to make a move,” Mr Kollosche said.
He said that the property had attracted several interested parties since it went on the market, but the owners were keen to see it go to the right buyer and are happy that they can pass it on to someone who will gain as much enjoyment from it as they have.
The buyers were looking for a home along the river.
