Law has high price
ONE of Queensland’s busiest police stations has sold under the hammer but it was by no means a steal.
The Surfers Paradise Police Station was seized yesterday in an investment raid by a Sunshine Coast private investor with a $5.4 million winning bid.
In the heart of the Glitter Strip’s nightclub precinct, the
high-profile asset’s sale price reflected a yield of 7 per cent.
It was among 18 properties put under the hammer at a Ray White auction event on the Gold Coast.
Auctioneer and Ray White Surfers Paradise Group chief executive officer Andrew Bell confessed he was “very familiar” with the property.
But his intimate knowledge of the offering was not because of any run-ins with its blue uniformed tenants.
“It used to be the Ray White office,” he told the crowded auction room at the Gold Coast Turf Club.
The Queensland Police Service has occupied the property since June 2007 on a 10-year lease and recently exercised the first of two fiveyear options.
Five registered bidders were listed to contest the property at the auction but with bidding escalating quickly after opening at $3.5 million it soon became a spirited two-horse race.
The two-level police station — spanning five stratatitled lots totalling 954sq m — fronts Orchid Ave but is attached to the rear of the 24storey Zenith apartment tower on The Esplanade.
Also featuring an extensive underground basement area and exclusive-use courtyard, it generates a net rental income of $380,505 a year.
Selling agent Steven King from Ray White Commercial said the property attracted “considerable” interest during the marketing campaign.