You can tell when the who’s who of Sydney first “discover” a new holiday spot by the property results that soon follow.
Take Umina Beach on the Central Coast where record highs have been set within six months of each other, and both by Sydneysiders with a penchant for a beachfront holiday home.
Hazlenut farmers Bruce and Michelle West were the first to do well from Umina Beach’s change in fortunes when they sold their absolute beachfront property last June for $3.2 million to the Beale family in Sydney through Stuart Gan, of PRD Nationwide Ettalong.
It was a decent gain for the couple, having paid $1.7 million for a house that they’d bought almost new in 2010.
Six months later there’s a new high of $3.58 million thanks to the recent purchase by wealthy businessman and Heyday Group founder Tony Borg for another absolute beachfront house set just a few doors away from the holiday home of Seven West Media boss Tim Worner.
The beachfront digs was also sold by Stuart Gan on behalf of printing industry boss Mamdooh Sidhom and his wife Maria.
“All of these sales are just further evidence that Sydneysiders have discovered Umina Beach en masse,” said Gan.
“Last year was a knockout for us at Pearl Beach not just in terms of strong sales results but big volumes of stock turning over, and now it seems that demand is spilling over to Umina Beach.”
Borg himself is no stranger to Umina Beach or even his new beachfront property.
Records show it was previously owned by the family until 2011 when it was sold to the Sidhoms for $1,995,000.
Borg founded electrical and data communication group Heyday in the late 1970s, selling and rebuying the company twice to his favour since then.