Surfboard maker Barry Bennett buys $10.3m Manly penthouse with view of the break

Legendary surfboard maker Barry Bennett and his wife Margaret have traded up their northern beaches home, selling their Fairlight apartment to buy a $10.3 million penthouse at Manly.

The Bennetts’ new spread is the most expensive of the 14 apartments in the recently completed Shoreline complex designed by Carlisle Architects and developed by Made Property Group.

Bennett, the former part-owner of the Surf Dive ‘n’ Ski chain, is not the only notable identity to have bought into the North Steyne development after a marketing campaign run by CBRE’s Darren Booth.

The global chief executive of KFC Anthony Lowings and his wife Nicole have also bought into the North Steyne block, settling on their apartment soon after completion last December for $5.2 million.

John Shanahan, former chief of market research firm Colmar Brunton and now chairman of the Advantage group, and his wife Michele have paid $8.5 million for the sub-penthouse, after the recent sale of their beachfront home in Drummoyne for $9.25 million to a developer.

Settlement on the Bennetts newly purchased home comes as records reveal they have sold their Fairlight apartment overlooking Fairlight Beach for $6.4 million to Vicki and Robert Hale, who already own in the 1970s tower.

It marks a return to the Manly surfside for the Bennetts, who sold their former home in the Waillea block on Fairy Bower in 2015 for $4.7 million when they bought their Fairlight apartment for $5.5 million.

Settlement on the Shoreline building shows six of the 14 apartments have sold for more than $5 million.

Manly’s apartment record remains untouched, however, despite the bullish results in Shoreline. A five-bedroom apartment atop the Susan Rothwell-designed Waillea building sold off-the-plan in 2008 for $12.2 million to former Greenhill Caliburn chairman and co-founder Peter Hunt and his wife, Ellie.