Australia's strangest trophy home, Alkira, sells in secret pre-auction deal

A last minute deal has been struck for one of Australia’s strangest homes the night before it was due to go to auction without a reserve price.

Alkira, the futuristic property in far north Queensland, sold for an undisclosed price on Tuesday night with its highly anticipated no reserve auction scheduled for Wednesday.

The last-ditch effort to secure the home was made by an Australian buyer after long negotiations, however, the buyer’s identity is staying private at this stage.

It had been tough going for agents selling the odd property, with asking prices varying between $8 million and $14 million. However, the no reserve tactic appeared to have paid off with Unique Estates director Nicolette Van Wijngaarden negotiating the deal on the eve of the auction.

“All I can say is it was a southern buyer who is very excited to use the property as a holiday home,” Ms Wijingaarden said.

“The buyer visited the home and spent some time up there and met the owner and fell in love with it – they bought it as a result.”

Although Ms Wijingaarden could not reveal anything about the negotiations, she said both buyer and vendor were happy.

“Obviously if you can avoid such a high pressure auction it’s good for everyone, so the timing worked well for both parties,” she said.

The sellers of the spaceship-like home are stamp collector Rod Perry and his wife, Marider, who had tried to shift the home for close to three years. 

It was designed by renowned architect Charles Wright who was also the brains behind another of the far north’s odd trophy homes — The Edge, which reportedly sold for $4.8 million in September – a price drop on its $7.4 million original asking price. 

Ms Wijingaarden said there had been a spike in the Port Douglas prestige market, with four high-end homes recently hitting the market.

“Around Port Douglas the market has picked up substantially with more inquiries on all the properties,” she said.

The floating six-bedroom, six-bathroom unique property is located on 30 hectares of land in the Daintree Rainforest and was the winner of the 2014 Queensland Architectural Award.