The TV host’s ultra-luxe waterfront home at Avalon Beach was nearly a decade in the making. In March, it’s set to go under the hammer in what will be one Sydney’s largest residential sales of early 2026.
‘Belah House’, the six-bedroom, six-bathroom property at 189 Riverview Road, that took the better part of 10 years to bring to life is now up for grabs. It comes with a revised price guide of $27m to $29m, slightly down from earlier expectations closer to the $33m mark.
Durie, one of Australia’s most recognisable TV personalities, bought the Pittwater site in 2015 for about $2.3 million.
Now, he and his wife, singer-songwriter Ameka Jane, are selling the eco-friendly family home as they prepare to relocate to their farm in the Byron Bay hinterland with their two young children. Durie has said the decision was driven by family timing rather than the property itself.
So, what does $30 million (or so) get you?
In a nutshell, a palatial waterfront work-of-art, stepped down a 37-degree escarpment from street to shoreline. Around 720sqm of internal space spans multiple levels with lift access, a private jetty, slipway, boathouse and inclinator to the water, plus an infinity pool and rooftop garden overlooking Pittwater.
Inside are a full-floor wellbeing level, cinema, wine cellar, guesthouse, solar and geothermal systems, and infrastructure designed to support off-grid living.
An eco-first build
The block sits within an E4 environmental zone and a protected spotted gum forest, overlooking Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park. Its 37-degree slope ruled out bulk excavation and forced the house to be stepped down the escarpment rather than cut into it.
“We’ve cleared so much native vegetation in the way that we’ve built over the last couple of hundred years,” Durie told the Local Project about Australia’s building habits. “We’ve really got to take a more intelligent approach about how we put our homes into the landscape.”
The finished structure cascades from the street to the water across multiple platforms, ending at a private beach, refurbished slipway and jetty.
Depending on how levels are counted, the home spans seven to nine storeys and includes a separate guesthouse, a boathouse at the water’s edge and a full-floor wellbeing zone with a Pilates studio, sauna and steam room.
Despite its scale, Durie has said the house was designed to be lived in simply. He said although it’s a multi-level home they really only wanted to live on two levels – one level for living and entertaining, one level for sleeping.
“From an engineering point of view, it was extremely hard to excavate and get our piling and shoring done so we could start putting all the platforms down and begin building the house,” Durie said.
The main living level opens directly onto a pool terrace with uninterrupted Pittwater views. A double-height living space is wrapped by more than 300 suspended plants, forming a continuous indoor garden around the room. A spotted gum staircase runs through the centre.
Durie refers to the property as Belah House, named after the local First Nations word for sun, a reference to its west-facing position over Pittwater.
The structure uses low-carbon and recycled concrete. Sandstone cladding is used externally to anchor the building to its bushland setting. Internally, spotted gum and sintered stone are used extensively, avoiding traditional marble finishes.
Durie has described sustainability as a core part of the brief rather than an optional feature.
“Our brief was to have a house that was as sustainable as possible without compromise,” he said. “That meant every single element that we put into the house had to be audited.”
The home is powered by solar and geothermal systems and was designed with the goal of operating off-grid. Rainwater tanks with a combined capacity of about 57,000 litres service irrigation and household use. Around 3,000 native plants were added across the site, including large vertical gardens planted into recycled geotextile panels.
The swimming pool uses a chemical-free filtration system rather than chlorine and sits level with the main living area. Below it, an older ocean pool dating back to the 1950s was retained and refurbished alongside the private beach and slipway.
The property heads to auction Sunday 1 March at 11am.
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