Billionaire Bruce Mathieson buys bargain Gold Coast mansion from skate entrepreneur

Melbourne-based pubs and poker machine baron Bruce Mathieson has taken advantage of the slump in prestige property prices to grab a Gold Coast mansion for $18 million, a massive $15 million below the asking price.   

The mansion, on the Gold Coast’s exclusive Mermaid Beach strip, features six-bedrooms, six bathrooms and a 10-car garage.

Mathieson, who already owns one mansion on the Gold Coast, bought the property from Stephen Hill, co-founder of skate and surf-wear company Globe International. Hill bought the property for $20 million in September 2006 and spent $10 million on a major redevelopment. 

While the original asking price for the mansion was $33 million, a spokesman for Hill told the Herald Sun that it was a “reasonable result given the current economic environment”.

Mathieson was valued at $1.13 billion by BRW last year, and owns a 25% stake in a hotels and gaming machine business ALH Group with supermarket giant Woolworths.

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