The sleepy seaside town of Moffat Beach is suddenly attracting attention – and big money.
Forget Noosa, the well-heeled are flocking to an under-the-radar beach town where a basic three-bedroom shack just sold for a record $13m — only to be knocked down.
From car dealers to developers, publicans to medicos and lawyers, Moffat Beach, or ‘Moffs’ as the locals call it, has become the place to be and buy property.
A humble cottage with oceanfront views on the headland cliffs has just settled for $13m — a new suburb record — to a Sunshine Coast family with plans to replace it with a mega mansion rumoured to be designed by superstar architect, Shaun Lockyer.
This house at 7 McIlwraith St, Moffat Beach, has sold for a suburb record for $13m.
A photo of what the new home on the site in McIlwraith St, Moffat Beach, could look like. Source: Lucy Brady Pinterest.
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The three-bedroom cottage at 7 McIlwraith Street attracted multiple offers, with developers and luxury homebuilders vying for the rare site, which last changed hands back in 1986 for just $160,000.
The buyer has already started preparing to build her dream home, with 96 pins on her Pinterest vision board of amazing home inspiration photos.
Jason Degn of Degn Real Estate, who negotiated the sale, said the buyer walked past the ‘for sale’ sign and made an offer the next day, but they were up against two developers who were prepared to pay big dollars for the site.
This house at 7 McIlwraith St, Moffat Beach, has sold for a suburb record for $13m.
“The reason we got such a good price was that apartment developers wanted it as well,” Mr Degn said.
“They have deep pockets and (the buyer) had to go hard to get it.”
It comes as Story Bridge Hotel owner Richard Deery has paid $7.4m for a four-bedroom, unrenovated house in Queen of Colonies Parade that he will use as a holiday home, and there are rumours of a $12m sale that won’t become public until early next year.
Richard Deery, in the Story Bridge Hotel, Kangaroo Point. Photo: Steve Pohlner.
This house at Queen of Colonies Pde, Moffat Beach, has sold for $7.4m.
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Down the road, apartments in new multi-residential developments, ‘Honu’ and ‘Lagune’, have been achieving eyewatering prices.
The full-floor residences in both buildings were designed by architect, Joe Adsett, and the most recent sale recorded was for $6.5m.
“$6.5m will look cheap in two years time,” Mr Degn said. “That’s not a lot compared to what’s going on the Gold Coast. It’s getting $9m and $10m m for pretty ordinary apartments.
“Moffat used to be the poor cousin to Sunshine Beach and Noosa, but it has its own appeal. Previously, the area was not considered to be the ultimate.”
Moffat Beach is attracting attention for the eyewatering prices its properties are starting to attract.
But that’s changed and properties once tightly-held by families for multiple decades are finally starting to change hands.
Purdy Developments director Craig Purdy said his family had owned property on the Caloundra Headland for 35 years and it was simply “a waiting game”.
“Once you have walked the headland from the Esplanade at Kings Beach to the cafe precinct at Moffat Beach, you know it is pretty special, and you want a slice of this special place with limited supply,” Mr Purdy said.
“The turtles during hatching season and of course the whale migration are spectacular sights from multiple elevated vantage points and of course multiple surfing beaches to handle both the north and south-east winds, and of course the Ma and Pa Bendall Memorial Surf Contest each Easter.”
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