Bondi Rescue's Bobby Yaldwyn sells Bondi’s most expensive semi for $6.5m

An unrenovated 1930s semi owned by former Bondi Rescue lifesaver Bobby Yaldwyn has sold for about $6.5 million, making it the most expensive house of its kind in Bondi Beach.

The sale bonanza is a fitting farewell for the long-time local lifesaver and paramedic known locally as “Yak”, whose family have owned the three-bedroom house for 30 years, having bought it in 1991 for $246,000.

Jason Boon, of Richardson & Wrench Elizabeth Bay, said he sold the Beach Road house off-market because he had a buyer ready to transact, freeing Yaldwyn, 55, to pursue his plans to move to split his time between Bondi and Byron Bay.

Yaldwyn, who left Ten’s hit reality show Bondi Rescue about five years ago, is known to have saved dozens of lives not only over the years as a lifeguard but also as a paramedic.

The sale comes just a month after the previous semi record was set at $6.1 million for a fully renovated house with four bedrooms and a swimming pool on a similar land size of 342 square metres in North Bondi.

Unlike Yaldwyn’s off-market deal this week, the previous high was set at auction before a 200-strong crowd in which there were 15 registered buyers who pushed the result $900,000 over reserve.

“That was a massive result at auction, which makes this sale all the more extraordinary because Yaldwyn’s house is unrenovated and the only real work was a bedroom, was added upstairs about a decade [ago],” said Boon.

Yaldwyn’s three-bedroom house is set on 323 square metres behind a double garage on Beach Road behind the Bondi Pacific development.

“The prices that are being paid are really due to what’s been happening over the past 12 months with COVID because people are thinking long-term about their lifestyle, and that’s often about moving close to the beach, or the water or the park.”