"A paragon of modernist beauty in a scorched Gold Coast landscape... a series of floating planes."
Seven months ago, Mick Fanning, a triple world champ and very well-publicised survivor of a Great White incident, sold his sprawling beachfront estate called Rolling Seas at Bilinga pre-auction for $16.5 mill.
It was a record price for a joint between Coolangatta and Currumbin and a gaudy reflection of Australia’s hottest property bubble since European settlement introduced the concept of land ownership two-and-a-half centuries earlier.
Fanning and his fam didn’t live in the three-storey house following a wild year circa covid when he became the figure of a stalker’s obsession, including a visit to Rolling Seas from the “mysterious strawberry blonde” one evening.
The mysterious strawberry blonde was Sarah Foote, a thirty-nine-year-old mother from Ballina, who had been stalking Fanning for months, including sending letters embellished with love hearts and graphic descriptions of murder etc.
Some excerpts:
“For some reason (which I have (sic) a stab in the dark (pardon pun) at, we got on so much better when I thought you were someone else,” she wrote.
“Nasty voices … your voice gets nasty too sometimes …”
“I occasionally want to kill you … to end our occasional miserable bullshit … I wouldn’t want to end our best times though. Because I have so much love for you and I would like to see what’s in store for future for us two.”
“I have smelt a murdered corpse in Rockhampton. She was very stinky, worse than any road kill I have ever smelt.”
“I met a kiddie killer, she smothered her baby. Only spent a year in a psychiatric hospital, then was released only to murder another child.”
“IDK when we will incarnate again together in this world.”
“I love you.”
Foote was arrested, charged, found guilty and hit with a fifteen-month prison sentence with immediate release on parole. Although Fanning was supported by most, friends of Foote stood by their pal.
“Fucking asshole rich dude with his expensive lawyer and douche bag reporters shaming you like this,” wrote one. “So so sorry this is all happening sweet heart. Hope u ok. Stay strong, and big hugs and hankies from me…”
Fanning didn’t just get rid of Rolling Seas.
Now, it can finally be revealed, Mick Fanning has commissioned his most ambitious build yet, a Richard Neutra-esque three-level home with five bedrooms and five bathrooms on an eight-thousand square feet hunk of beachfront dirt he bought in 2023 for six-and-a-half mill.
The house, which is called Onda, a Spanish word for “vibe”, exemplifies Neutra’s “biorealism” philosophy: blending technology, aesthetics and human well-being with the natural environment.
To that end, there is a sauna, ice baths, a bar and what Neutra called a “gloriette”, an pen-air rooftop deck offering serene ocean and mountain views and serving as an elevated outdoor room with turnable louvres for privacy and ventilation.
The builder-developer Graya was thrilled to announce the landmark build along with a few CAD mockups.
“Positioned on a rare beachside site, ONDA is a celebration of coastal connection and barefoot luxury, where design flows as effortlessly as the tide.
“ONDA captures the rhythm of the ocean and the relaxed energy of life by the sea.”
A house for the successful and cock-sure, yes?
Please stop calling houses “joints”.
A$$hole rich dude beach house, the title of your sex tape
Don’t waste your well earned cash Fanno lad.
Hey, DR. Just came across this; talking about a certain relationship between the US and Aus.
https://independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/the-secret-life-of-bob-hawke-us-informant,15262
When does his new R&B album drop??
Right onda money, Mick.
Investing money just to make more money is pointless.
Investing it to somehow make the world a better place, is one reason why we are here.
3 titles or not, never really impressed by this dude.
As a local fella around the same age I am a huge fan of both Mick and Joel but always feel Mick gets the love where as Joel cops a bit of a bad wrap.
Since retiring from the tour Joel can usually be found with his family or surfing with his boyhood mates and enjoying getting any wave he wants around these parts. He also still reps his beloved Snapper Rocks board riders and does heaps for the groms.
Mick is more of a brand and is forever popping up on the tv here flogging this or that, or being seen with his famous celebrity mates and so on. Just my take but I know which appeals to me more. Neither will ever approach the true legendary core lord status I hold Margo in though. Nicest, most down to earth cunt you will ever meet and still absolutely fucking ripping
Forgot about his interior design team who thought sterility was edgy…… Carolyn Kreiss acolytes.
Can’t wait to see the new flip!
You go Eugene!!!!
This kind of money is morally bankrupt.
He earned it, I would suggest.
I would suggest that CB’s statement has nothing to do with Mick.
Yes Mick earned it.
Yes the level of money involved in real estate is morally bankrupt.
There are exceptions, but as a rule real estate is a predatory opportunistic dirty soul sucking vocation that contributes nothing or even less to humanity.
Hedge fund ownership of housing in any form should be illegal.
Word
100%
“You’ll own nothing and you’ll be happy” – World Economic Forum
Whats the exact amount it goes wrong? more than you have, Im guessing?
smart move.
No chance of that beach getting gobbled up by climate change with the sand bypass just out of view.
Probs walk across to baggage check in when he goes OS.
Beer, foamies and coastal real estate- Fanning has made all the right plays.
balter= fruity cats piss though.
The famous Kaufmann Desert House may have been modernist when it was built 80 yrs ago, but it’s surprising that Fanning is going with such an old-fashioned 1940’s design.
And Derek, please stop referring land size using the ridiculous sq ft measurement.
8000 sq ft is less than 800 sq meters which is under 1/5 of an acre, and pretty bloody small, especially at that price.
No doubt the house will take up most the space leaving no room for fuck all else…
Eight thousand square feet a real big spread in coastal Australia.
Yes Derek I’m aware that 743 sq meters is pretty standard for a coastal suburb section.
But for $6,500,000 dollars ?
And with barely enough room for a couple of shrubs and a lap pool, let alone a tennis court after plonking a concrete box on it.
Sq ft measurements are ok for apartments and small houses, but sq m’s and acres are more appropriate for measuring land…
I’m definitely not buying it for that price.