Merivale billionaire Justin Hemmes has continued his Byron Bay buy-up at Belongil Beach. The hospitality boss has spent $3.75m on a four-bedroom, two-bathroom pavilion-style home on 710sq m.
Designed by Troppo Architects, the creek-front had been initially listed in 2024 with a $6.8m guide.
The property takes Hemmes’ neighbourhood residential holdings to four, costing a cool $45m.
Chris Hemsworth is by far Byron Bay’s most famous resident, after the Hollywood star and his wife Elsa Pataky bought a big slice of land outside Byron Bay township in 2014.
Three years later construction began on a huge home there, nicknamed ‘Fortress Hemsworth’ by the locals and today is said to worth more than $50m.
Hemmes’ latest buy sits next door to his initial $16m purchase of a two-bedroom cottage on a beachfront 1894sq m holding, secured in 2023.
Hemmes’ next acquisition came shortly after, when he spent $22m on 2165sq m several doors away on the popular strip on the northwest of the main Byron Bay township. He added his third property, again not adjoining, for $3.3m in February last year.
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Justin Hemmes has bought again at Byron Bay. Picture: realestate.com.au
The Belongil Beach and Belongil Creek precinct has about 2.5km of coastline offering a quieter, less crowded alternative to the main, busier town beaches, including Clarkes and Wategos.
Until 2019, actor Delvene Delaney and late husband John “Strop” Cornell were longtime owners, with a vast compound.
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The property takes Hemmes’ neighbourhood residential holdings to four. Picture: realestate.com.au
Their initial 1ha beachfront holding had been bought from property developer Peter Kurts, in 1987, for $375,000.
Justin Hemmes. Picture: Jonathan Ng
The Block judge Darren Palmer and husband Olivier Dullivard recently spent $4.2m, swapping Suffolk Park for an original three-bedroom house on a 410sq m block that has creek views through established palms.
Harvey Norman heir Glen Norman bought for $10m, in 2015, and designer Shelley Craft secured $9m when selling her property in 2023.
Hemmes has been active in the Byron Bay commercial market since his 2021 acquisition of the Cheeky Monkey’s backpacker bar. The Jonson St site is under construction, with locals anticipating it could open as Totti’s Byron and Jimmy’s Falafel.
“I’ve been going to Byron since I was 10 years old, so it has always been a place close to my heart,” he said at the time of the $11.5m site purchase.
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Elsa Pataky and Chris Hemsworth have owned in Byron Bay for around 10 years.
“I can’t wait to open our first venue on the North Coast and spend more time in the area.
There’s simply no place like it.”
Chris Hemsworth’s Byron Bay home
Along with Chris Hemsworth’s huge investment in the locale, Chris’ brother Liam has also decided to call Byron Bay home.
The celebrity factor was one crucial attribute that led to Byron Bay home prices skyrocketing, around 50 per cent in just two years from the start of 2021.
However, they are almost now back down to January 2021 levels, after sinking a massive 22 per cent over the past year.
Accordingly, Byron Bay’s celebrity spotlight appears to have waned, with house prices in the suburb dropping by over a third in the last year according to new data from PropTrack.
+ Additional reporting by James MacSmith
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