Surf icon Stephanie Gilmore buys $2.7 million Byron Bay beach shack in possible Owen Wright-esque development play!

"A monument to greed wearing a spiritual cloak."

The most successful female surfer in history, Ms Stephanie Gilmore, has spent almost three million dollars on a nondescript beach shack in Australia’s Byron Bay, a town recently described as “a monument to greed wearing a spiritual cloak.”

Gilmore, who won her eighth world title after an all-day marathon in 2022 thereby making her the GOAT, as they say, was last seen on these pages five weeks ago when she listed her Tweed Heads apartment for somewhere between 850 and 950k, Australian. She bought it in 2006 for 392k. 

The two-bed condo a few streets back from the Superbank is now under offer thereby fattening the purse of the thirty five year old and providing the liquidity for the Byron purchase. 

(Gilmore, like Mick Fanning, has kept one apartment in the popular building.)

The three-bedder in Byron is on almost 8000 square feet of dirt and is four-hundred yards away from Owen Wright’s  $26 million development of four luxury villas on Daniel St.

Four years ago, you’ll remember, the one-time title contender paid $5.1 million for an unremarkable beach shack which he subsequently bulldozed and turned into four villas, with Owen and his developer partner Burke Urban keeping one apiece, the other two listed at $6.5 mill. One remains on the market. 

Gilmore’s joint is the sorta place you’d love to raise a family, the kids climbing trees in the backyard, running down the street with their little surfboards so they can get their heads knocked off at the Pass, sub-tropical air filling your lungs, volcanic soil feeding the palm trees in the yard.

Likely, like Owen, she’ll call in the bulldozer, subdivide the land and construct a couple of cubist, all-concrete boxes with tiny swimming pools in their abbreviated backyards and with art-deco inspired interiors and hues of peach and beige, all of which’ll drive Sydney buyers nuts. Four mill apiece I’d guess. 

The Massinger Street house last sold in 2011 for 800k. A little lipstick was applied here and there but the owner still walking away with close to two mill. 

The question, I suppose, for financially savvy readers at least, is this: is property development the best creator of wealth and passive income for investors a little shy of the money markets?

Or better to throw into EFTs etc?