NOOSA IGNITES WITH RECORD TROPHY HOMES

It wasn’t too long ago that Noosa was seen as a relaxed holiday town, more famous for its surf breaks and weekenders than record-breaking prestige property.

But much like much of Queensland, COVID lit a torch under the market, and in Noosa it was the prestige sector that surged the hardest.

Records tumbled, including one-bedroom apartments on Hastings Street, the suburb’s only true beachfront strip, changing hands for nearly $6 million. That’s a price point not seen anywhere else in Australia, not even Bondi Beach.

While some regional markets have since cooled as workers trudged back to the office, Australia’s wealthy have continued to pour into Noosa.

Their growing fortunes, from corporate payouts to generational wealth, have fuelled the demand. Think former Virgin Australia CEO Jayne Hrdlicka, who just received a $50 million payout from her former employer.

Just before Christmas last year she spent $17 million on a 1970s Noosa home, which she plans to knockdown and replace with a three-level luxury residence by Shaun Lockyer Architects.

The regional price record was set in 2021 when Peter Tighe, non-executive chairman of AuKing Mining and part-owner of champion mare Winx, paid $34 million for Webb House in Sunshine Beach.

Initially, speculation swirled that billionaire Gina Rinehart was the mystery buyer. Sunshine Beach still holds the crown for Noosa’s priciest sale, but the bulk of big-ticket transactions are now spread between absolute beachfront in Noosa Heads and the suburb’s sought-after waterways.

So far in 2025, there have been 42 sales above $5 million across the region. That’s broadly in line with the last three years, with the exception of 2021, when more than 90 properties over $5 million changed hands between January and September alone.

Higher interest rates aren’t applicable to this cohort of buyers.

This year Mark Fraser, the Queensland architect who founded beach shade giant CoolCabanas, paid $18 million on an empty X sqm block of land with approved plans for a new luxury home.

Brendan Pickering, the managing director of Pickerings Auto Group, spent $16.5 million to add to his collection of Noosa waterfront trophy homes, while the lesser known, Melbourne-based millionaires Robert and Abigail Polites, emerged as buyers of a $17.6 million home on Witta Circle, widely regarded as Noosa’s premier riverfront street.

The prestige market has been further energised with the listing of one of Noosa’s most striking waterfront homes, and it could set a new benchmark.

Reed & Co. agents Adrian Reed and Donna Taylor have just launched Casa Luca to market, a newly built Wyuna Drive home that recently won the 2025 Master Builders Regional Award.

Translating to “House of Light,” the home has been crafted by renowned designer Paul Clout, whose name is synonymous with Noosa’s most celebrated residences. Interiors are by Hong Henwood, incorporating Italian marble, Portuguese stone, Egyptian limestone, and hand-blown Soktas glass pendants.

Every detail has been carefully curated, and all the custom furnishings are included in the sale.

The residence offers a 20-metre river frontage with expansive glass panes framing uninterrupted water views. Inside, curved walls and soaring ceilings deliver dramatic impact, while a marble-clad galley kitchen with a 3.5-metre island bench forms the heart of the home.

It features a Gaggenau cooktop and ovens, dual integrated Fisher & Paykel fridges, and Miele dishwashers, a space designed to entertain as much as cook.

Spread across more than 500 sqm of internal living, the four king-sized bedrooms include a master retreat with a private riverfront terrace, walk-in robe, and ensuite clad in limestone and Italian marble.

Multiple lounge areas are anchored by Jetmaster and gas fireplaces, with terraces flowing to the pool, spa, and private jetty. A custom wine cellar and bar sit alongside the dining space, while an alfresco pavilion with an automated roof, BeefEater barbecue, plumbed gas fire pit, floating daybed, and magnesium pool complete the resort-style setting.

Competing for best trophy home listing this summer is another Paul Clout special, this one on Gympie Terrace in Noosaville. The home, dubbed One W, is listed with Century 21 Conolly Hay Group Noosa Heads agent Rachel Sellman, who is entertaining offers around the $20 million mark.

The highlight of the four-bedroom, three-level home is the rooftop terrace, channeling a chic Mediterranean beach club with a private heated pool and spa, floating daybeds, custom dining and lounging areas with a gas fireplace, a built-in barbecue, a bar with beer taps, and an adjustable pergola. Sharing this level is a fitness studio with a full gym, infrared sauna, and a steam shower.

In Sydney’s Northern Beaches, there are plenty of homes with a multimillion-dollar view and an enviable position close to the sand.

This unique listing has all that, but it has also earned its page in the local history books.

After 50 years in the same hands, The Palladium in Palm Beach—once a famed dance hall, then a restaurant, a private residence, and an artists’ studio—is now back on the market with a price hopes of $13.5 million through BJ Edwards and David Edwards of LJ Hooker Palm Beach.

Positioned in a rare corner spot where Ocean Rd meets Palm Beach Rd, The Palladium has been front and centre observing the famous sandy stretch for almost a century.

Built in the early 1930s, the Art Deco building was originally conceived as a vibrant community dance hall; the “it” place to be for young folk during Sydney’s thriving interwar period.

Often the dances were held to raise money for the Palm Beach Surf Life Saving Club, and newspaper reports of the time told of rowdy parties lasting until the early hours, bootleg liquor arrests, and where shorts and sandals—or even pyjamas—were scandalously worn by “both sexes”.

Over the decades, The Palladium has worn many hats.

By 1943, the original owner, Joseph Henry Graham, had defaulted on his loan, and a mortgagee sale reportedly sold the building for £1550, which translates to about $137,000 today. It later became a dining space and a general store run by the Milton family. In the 1960s and early 1970s, the property was also home to the Blue Pacific Restaurant.

The current owners acquired the keys in 1976 when it began its next chapter as a creative hub. One of today’s vendors, filmmaker David Elfick, who has been a filmmaker and producer on such films as Newsfront and Rabbit-Proof Fence, has told stories of a free-spirited creative hub that has been used for film sets, to store numerous movie props, as editing rooms, to hold countless parties and has even hosted visiting members of the Royal Shakespeare Company.

From its famed beachside soirees to its grassroots film club nights, the venue has become woven into the cultural fabric of Palm Beach.

Today, that rich history has been reimagined into a coastal home that honours its past while embracing contemporary beachside living.

Built in a unique architectural style known as streamline moderne, the aeroplane hangar-like building reflects the era’s fascination with air travel, mass transport, and modernity. The facade is defined by a sweeping curved roofline and subtle nautical cues.

The main residence features a vast central living space framed by a number of bedrooms and sunrooms, as well as a front dining room and kitchen. In total, there are four to five bedrooms, three bathrooms and a powder room adjoining an upstairs loft space.

Big, broad windows draw in loads of natural light and provide iconic views, plus the sounds of the beach just across the road.

Many of the original elements remain, most fittingly the polished floors of the former dance hall. In the additional building at the back of the block, there is a separate, self-contained studio with its own bedroom, bathroom, kitchen and laundry. From its elevated deck, the outlook stretches across the full sweep of Palm Beach.

Outside, the expansive 1151sq m land parcel also features established gardens with veggie patches and standalone decks for quiet contemplation.

Sitting just across the road from the beach, the property is also within walking distance of local cafes and the surf club. Palm Beach Rock Pool is at one end of the beach, with the Palm Beach Golf Club and the water airport at the other end of the peninsula.

The Palladium and Palm Beach Studio at 16 Ocean Rd, Palm Beach are listed with BJ Edwards and David Edwards of LJ Hooker Palm Beach via a private treaty campaign with a price guide of $13.5 million.

NOOSA IGNITES WITH RECORD TROPHY HOMES

Once a sleepy surf town, Noosa has become Australia’s prestige property hotspot, where multi-million dollar knockdowns, architectural showpieces and record-setting sales are the new normal.

After half a century in the same hands, The Palladium blends Art Deco heritage, cinematic history and beachfront living in one extraordinary offering.