Fashion identity Robby Ingham scores $11.3m South Coast auction high for Ocean Pines

Fashion pioneer and Ingham chicken heir Robby Ingham and his wife Sarah scored a windfall on their South Coast oceanfront property Ocean Pines on Wednesday night when it sold under the hammer for $11.3 million.

The result is about $3 million over the reserve thanks to four registered bidders who pushed the sale result from an opening bid of $6 million.

The reserve remains undisclosed by Ray White’s leading agents Craig Pontey and Neil Campbell, but a source in the room said it was called on the market at $8.5 million.

Ingham bought the 40-hectare farmland property with a high water mark title for $7 million in 2012, setting a Gerringong record in the process.

The only material improvements to the property since are new fences and the addition of a bore, however the designer 3000-square-metre residence approved for the hilltop by architect Nick Tobias involved an expensive appeal to the Land and Environment Court.

The result is the highest auction result on the South Coast, and tops a previous South Coast record set in 2015 when businesswoman Kerry Moran sold her Kiama oceanfront property with an unfinished Philip Thalis-designed residence, Pebble Cove Farm, for $7.3 million.

Hotel mogul Justin Hemmes is another South Coast trophy owner, having bought a 60-hectare landmark beachfront property that was marketed for $7.5 million for $6.7 million in 2015, with 1.5 kilometres of absolute beachfront.

The Inghams, of the horse racing and chicken family, are no stranger to property records.

Ingham set a Tamarama record two years ago when and his wife Sarah, a former model, sold their beachside house for $13 million to Annie Conley, also known as DJ Annie.