The grandest of current listings across Australia is unquestionably the Tallebudgera estate Bellagio La Villa, the home of the horse racing enthusiast and property developer Paul Sweeney and his wife, Viki Farrar.

It is listed for January 31  Ray White auction as a court-ordered separation sale.

No price guide has been given for the 17-hectare estate, set some seven minutes’ drive from Burleigh Heads in the Gold Coast hinterland.

The land holding was bought in 2006 for $7 million.

They reputedly spent a further $8 million constructing their dream residence over the next two years.

Not suprisingly, American reportage of the mansion’s auction listing has stressed it’s a 27,415-square-foot (2,546-square-metre) mansion of amazing proportions. 

The Sweeneys founded Coral Homes in 1990 after moving from Mayfield West, near Maitland in New South Wales, with the company rapidly expanding to become one of the largest residential developers in Queensland. In its first year of operation, the company sold 25 homes. The business doubled sales each year from 25 to 50 to 100 to 200 and then 400 homes in its fifth year.

Like the market, from that point sales were up and down, but Coral Homes was still able to achieve an average of 20% growth a year to 1,200 homes by around 2008.

The Sweeneys’ luxury home features 10 ensuited bedrooms, plus multiple living areas, a library, media and music rooms, a gym, and indoor pool and spa.

There is also a five-car garage-cum-ballroom.

The marketing describes it as the most gracious and elegant horse estates in the region. And there is some evidence to back up that claim as Southern Lord, a Group 1-winning thoroughbred, as born and raised there.

Despite the downturn in the Gold Coast’s property market, sales have included a record $12 million for a Sanctuary Cove property and $9.5 million for a house on the Nerang River at Southport.