As PM joins the Central Coast set, Rich List family offers $20m estate

As Prime Minister Anthony Albanese put the Central Coast on the radar of aspirational holiday home owners everywhere last week, the Rich List’s Rose family are ready to cash in on the attention by putting up for sale their trophy estate.

Lakeside Lodge is set to hit the market in the coming days with McGrath’s Mat Steinwede and no official guide yet, but it is expected to set a record for the Central Coast of more than $20 million.

It comes a week after the Labor leader revealed he has purchased a clifftop getaway with his fiancee, Jodie Haydon, in Copacabana for about $4.3 million, in what is a discounted purchase on the $4.65 million the house last traded for in 2021.

Brothers Stuart and Bryan Rose, who head up the family’s Rose Group property development company that was founded by their parents Margaret Rose and her late husband Bob Rose, have owned the Gwandalan estate for more than 20 years.

It was previously owned by disgraced HIH boss Ray Williams, who sold it to the Roses in 2003 for $5 million in a private deal a couple of years after the insurance company collapsed with debts of about $5 billion and left thousands of customers without insurance.

At the time of the purchase Bryan Rose told The Sydney Morning Herald they had fallen in love with the area and that he and Stuart plan to use the house as a base while working for the family company on the Catherine Hill Bay redevelopment.

Part of the estate was subdivided in 2013 to offer 187 housing lots behind the estate, and leaving Lakeside Lodge on eight hectares fronting Lake Macquarie.

The Roses upgraded it significantly into an eight-bedroom residence with a pool, firepit, tennis court and a separate pavilion with guest accommodation and games room, as well as a private boat jetty, shed and dry dock.

The Central Coast house price record was set at $16.2 million in 2022 by the luxury Wagstaffe weekender Agave of on-the-run businessman Bill Papas. It was sold to a mystery buyer fronted by the accounting firm AGEIS.

It was relisted six weeks ago with $16 million hopes, but is yet to sell.

While the Central Coast has long had a reputation as the poor cousin to well-heeled Palm Beach, that is increasingly difficult to justify, given the many billionaires and corporate heavy hitters who own there.

Ad man John Singleton and former used-car dealer Tony Denny are both Killcare Heights locals, although “Singo” is currently selling his Panamuna Pavilion following the end of his marriage to Sarah Warry.

Singleton sold his stud at Mount White, Strawberry Hill, a year ago for $23.25 million to Coolmore boss Tom Magnier.

Billionaire and Atlassian co-founder Scott Farquhar has owned at North Avoca since 2010, and bought a second beachfront house in 2022 for a record at $10.85 million.

MacMasters Beach cracked the double-digit millions last year when Mohammad Khajeh, a co-director of gaming consultancy Data Processors, bought for $13.5 million.

And Pearl Beach is often regaled as the most-coveted holiday spot, counting a slew of high-profile corporate types among its owners, including former Australia Post chief executive Christine Holgate, UK Fast Search co-founder Thomas Fussell, Rebel Sports co-founder Robert Gavshon and Orica chair Karen Moses.