Property

TECH GURU SETS BEACHFRONT RECORD $10.5M for North Avoca “bargain”

ANORTH Avoca home bought by billionaire Atlassian guru Scott Farquhar has set a record beachfront price for the Central Coast.

Mr Farquhar reportedly paid $10.5M for the contemporary version of the traditional Queenslander style and was considered a bargain at that price.

It was more than $2M under the property’s original price guide of $13m when it first entered the market in February. The property last sold for $3m six years ago.

Mr Farquhar and his investment banker wife Kim Jackson added the five bedrooms home complete with swimming and sweeping beachfront lawns to their impressive property portfolio.

The home is set on a 556sqm block and was created as a contemporary interpretation of the classic Queenslander and ‘captures the very essence of beachfront living’, according to the property description by selling agent Belle Property Terrigal.

It has level manicured lawns, complete with a stone firepit, which overlook the ocean.

The tech billionaire and his wife are also the owners of the mansion known as ‘Elaine’ at Point Piper which they for $71M in 2017 - the third highest price ever paid for a house in Sydney.

In 2020, Mr Farquhar revealed his plans to restore the home to its former glory and preserve its sprawling gardens, century-old trees and stable.

The ‘Elaine’ estate is next door to a 1.12ha property owned by Mr Farquhar’s Atlassian co-founder Mike Cannon-Brookes.

Mr Cannon-Brookes in 2018 bought the $100m ‘Fairwater’, which was formally owned by Lady Mary Fairfax.

The purchase actually broke the record for Australia’s most expensive residential mansion, overtaking Mr Farquhar’s $71m price tag by almost $30m.

Mr Farquhar ranked fourth on this year’s AFR Rich List 200 after his worth soared by $6.4bn in the last 12 months to an estimated $26.4bn.

His estimated worth has since risen as Atlassian’s share price has soared 56% to $US279.35 in recent weeks.

Co-founder Mr Cannon-Brookes was third on the AFR list worth $27.83B.

The pair, who first met while studying at University of NSW, founded Atlassian in 2002 with a $10,000 credit card debt.

The tech firm still only consisted of several employees seven years later when the co-founders gatecrashed a podcast recording at a tech conference in Belgium with the aim of making an impact, according to media reports.

They bought $2000 worth of beer and put Atlassian stickers on them, which were then handed to all of the 1000 attendees as they walked in.

The marketing gamble paid off and the pair haven’t looked back since.

Mr Farquhar, 42, recently opened up about ‘Atlassian Central’, an ambitious project being built in Sydney that will become the company’s new headquarters.

The office will be 75,000sqm and 40 storeys tall, comprised of low-carbon steel, concrete and timber, with costs of around $1.4bn and a completion date of 2027.