A Gold Coast mega-mansion has been snapped up after just two weeks on the market. Photo: Supplied An iconic Gold Coast mega-mansion owned by Ladbrokes CEO Dean Shannon has sold weeks after hitting the market.
Marketing agent Ruth Fea was tight-lipped about the sale price, but revealed to Domain the Versace-styled Hope Island house settled in a secret deal in the weeks leading up to Christmas.
She said interest in the seven-bedroom, 10-bathroom property had been immediate and the house was snapped up in “less than two weeks”.
The property, on a 5,371 square metre block, comes with deep water mooring for a 50 metre vessel. Photo: Supplied
It is understood to have been purchased by an overseas buyer and while Ms Fea wouldnot reveal what they paid, it is rumoured to have set a new record for Hope Island – a record set in late 2014 when Mr Shannon paid nearly $10.5 million for the very same house.
The sale of “Sails” is still way off the Gold Coast’s record sale for 2016 though, made in September when former Billabong boss Scott Perrin sold his Mermaid Beach home for $25 million.
Mr Shannon, a serial internet entrepreneur famous for making his fortune from online pornography and gambling, bought the a palatial waterfront home for a relative bargain – it was once marketed for $25 million before the global financial crisis hit.
Mr Shannon paid close to $10.5 million for the mansion in 2014, which was a suburb record until its recent sale. Photo: Supplied
The size of the house is phenomenal – 2,709 square metres under roof – and features gold swan taps, Swarovski crystal chandeliers, marble lion sentinels and its own self-contained penthouse apartment with a balcony big enough to land a helicopter.
The block of land itself is 5,371 square metres and sits facing north with deep water frontage, direct ocean access and protected mooring for a 160-foot vessel.
Mr Shannon bought the property off former Fraser Island barge and resort operators Sid Melksham and Angela Burger, but it was the original owner, boat dealer Gary Chuck, who put a $25 million price tag on it in 2007.
Internally, the Hope Island mansion is 2,709 square metres. Photo: Supplied
During the campaign Mr Chuck was made a $16 million cash offer but knocked it back. In 2008 he hit a financial wall and administrators moved in, selling the house for $9.75 million in the same year.
Mr Shannon, who founded bookmaker.com.au and then sold it to Ladbrokes in September 2013 for $22.5 million, recently announced he will step down from his current CEO post with Ladbrokes in February for personal reasons.
It has been reported he plans to relocate to acreage in the Gold Coast hinterland with his family.