Former NRL player Ben Barba has sold his Sutherland Shire home. Photo Peter Wallis

Despite the emerging property price recovery across Sydney, former NRL star Ben Barba has sold in the Sutherland Shire at a big loss.

His former Caringbah South home quietly sold for $1,085,000, nearly $100,000 less than the $1.18 million he paid in 2014 — just two years into Sydney’s five-year boom.

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Barba had been playing for the Cowboys. Source: Alix Sweeney

Barba bought the two-bedroom home a month after signing a three-year contract with the Cronulla Sharks.

Fast-forward five years and the former fullback has been deregistered from the NRL, and is reported to be working in Mackay and playing football for Mackay Rangers.

The Caringbah South home became a $1000-a-week investment when Barba left to play in France and England.

He later signed with North Queensland but his contract was terminated before he played a game after video emerged of an alleged altercation with his girlfriend at a casino.

The NRL later deregistered Barba, effectively handing him a life ban, and he pleaded guilty to public nuisance and was sentenced to community service but was not convicted.

How the property looked back when Barba bought it in 2014.

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Barba is still seeking a buyer for his Brisbane investment house, at offers over $849,000 for the four-bedroom home he paid $769,000 for in 2013.

In 2017 he sold a Caringbah South investment unit for $600,000, after paying $425,000 in 2012.