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A former AFL player has transformed a run-down block of brown flats into a $25million mansion.

Tony Smith, 53, and his wife Simone bought the dilapidated 17-unit building at 2 Heron Avenue on Mermaid Beach on the Gold Coast for $12million in 2014.

In the six year that followed, the Sydney Swans star turned property developer transformed the 2,112sq/m lot into one of Queensland's most expensive mansions. 

The property features 40 metres of stunning beachfront, four ensuite bedrooms, a cinema, spa, steam rooms, a self-contained granny flat and a north-facing pool with a built-in trampoline.

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The Sydney Swans star turned property developer transformed the 2,112sq/m lot into one of Queensland's most expensive mansions

Tony Smith, 53, and his wife Simone bought the dilapidated 17-unit building at 2 Heron Avenue on Mermaid Beach on the Gold Coast for $12million in 2014

They turned it into a four-bedroom beachfront mansion with a pool, spa, cinema, self-contained granny flat and a pool with an in-built trampoline

Harry Kakavas, the selling agent at Prestige Property Sales, told Daily Mail Australia the property was sold to a businessman from the upmarket suburb of Toorak in Melbourne earlier this month.

He plans to use the mansion, which is a few doors down from a property belonging to billionaire Clive Palmer, as a holiday home. 

The $25million price tag matched record set in 2016 when the former boss at fashion label Billabong sold his mansion on Albatross Avenue in the same suburb. 

Mr Kakavas said the Heron Avenue sale was an expected victory during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The the property was sold to a businessman from the upmarket suburb of Toorak in Melbourne earlier this month

The selling agent said the property is one of the Gold Coast's top five best homes, and that the sale was unexpected during the COVID-19 pandemic

'With COVID, more people are looking to holiday at home as there will be fewer people inclined to travel during these times, even when they can,' Mr Kakavas told Domain.

As a result, 'lifestyle properties' - homes that look and feel like holiday retreats - will be in demand. 

'This property is definitely one of the Gold Coast's top five best homes … and to have a 40-metre north-east-facing beachfront block is extremely rare,' he said.

'I mean the sheer width of the property alone [makes it one of a kind], but with beachfront living you're usually so close to your neighbours that you can hear them changing their minds.'

Mr Kakavas said most of the buyers looking at coastal properties are from interstate.    

Tony Smith is a former Sydney Swans player who retired in 1988. He is now a successful property developer living in Queensland