If there was a poster boy for the housing boom of recent years, F45 co-founder Adam Gilchrist would have to be a contender thanks to bullish property plays. Take his record $18.8 million house purchase in Byron Bay, $20 million worth of houses in Freshwater and more than $16 million worth of beachside real estate in Lennox Head.
Even his first foray into the prestige market caught the attention of locals in 2017 when he snapped up a Californian bungalow in Freshwater sight unseen for $5.4 million – $1.3 million over the reserve.
Adam Gilchrist’s three-bedroom house by Freshwater Beach has been updated and painted since it last traded in 2017 for $5.4 million.
But 2022 has been a different experience. The share price of his Nasdaq-listed fitness chain has plummeted since it floated at $US17 in July last year to $US2.25 this week, his LA Giltinis rugby league team was recently booted out of the US Major League Rugby, and he resigned as chief executive as 110 of his F45 colleagues also lost their jobs – although in his case with an almost $10 million handshake on the way out.
As Gilchrist’s whereabouts make headlines amid the F45 share price rout, he has presumably been in contact with Clarke & Humel’s Michael Clarke and Cherie Humel from somewhere in the world given they launched one of his Freshwater houses to the market this week for more than $8 million.
The 400-square-metre property goes to auction on October 22.
Neither agent would comment on the listing, but on offer is the bungalow Gilchrist bought in 2017 amid plans to demolish it and rebuild as a larger residence, only to wind back those plans when he bought next door for $14 million saying he wanted to knock it down instead to make way for a pool.
F45’s Adam Gilchrist at the New York Stock Exchange at the float of the fitness franchise in July last year.Credit:Noam Galai
Despite the grandiose plans, both houses remain standing. The $14 million house sold last month for what sources say was $14.2 million, which reset the local record books but failed to recoup his $600,000 stamp duty, and the Californian bungalow returned to the market on Friday having been freshly painted and styled ahead of an October 22 auction.
In nearby Manly, Fairy Bower’s housing market is still proving itself to be the Point Piper of the Northern Beaches judging by the recent house sale by Amanda and Scott Luckett, chief bean counter at Australia’s only for-profit university Torrens University.
