Bayview's $9.5 million Bachelor mansion sold by freight tycoon Clive Thomas

The Bayview mansion known as the Bachelor house thanks to its starring role on the 2013 reality romance show was sold on Monday by freight tycoon Clive Thomas and his wife Lee.

The opulent French provincial-style landmark is officially known as La Joie de Vivre, but gained prominence as the lavishly appointed backdrop to the budding romance of former Bachelor Tim Robards and his now-wife Anna Heinrich.

The buyer and sale price remains undisclosed by Darren Curtis, of Christie’s International, but it carried a $9.5 million guide before it sold, and had multiple parties interested in the end.

Independent sources say they expect the property to settle for about $9 million.

It last traded for $7.05 million in 2016 when Thomas, the chief executive and owner of C.T. Freight, purchased the 4090-square-metre property to relocate to Sydney, ending an on and off sales campaign that stretched back to 2013.

The Thomases have since returned to their Surfers Paradise waterfront trophy home they purchased in 2007 for $6.5 million.

The hillside mansion was built in the early 1990s by industrialist Jack Dellalian and his wife Dana.

Spread over three levels, it has six bedrooms, seven bathrooms, a banquet-sized dining room, formal and informal living areas that featured in so many of The Bachelor’s rose ceremonies, as well as a tennis court, games room, sauna, spa, gymnasium and a swimming pool with a waterfall.

It made headlines in 1996 amid claims it was bought by actor Kevin Costner, but the stories turned out to be unfounded.

Instead it was sold by the Dellalians in 2003 for $7 million to founder of direct seller Omegatrend Loren Watts and his wife Sandra, who scored a suburb record later that year when they sold it through Christie’s International for $10 million to philanthropist and retired transport magnate Greg Poche and his wife Kay van Norton.

The Bayview suburb high was reset at $11.4 million in 2007 when Hopton Lodge was sold by developer and agent Max Delmege and his wife Narelle to businessman John Forbes.