Mermaid block sold in marathon auction
AN investor from Sydney has won a near one and half-hour auction contest to take ownership of an ageing block of apartments in a beachside Mermaid Beach street.
The investor’s $2.4 million bid for Seagull Lodge, at 99 Seagull Ave, headed off a Gold Coast buyer. The property was put on the market after the six owners agreed to a team marketing effort.
The result – they each will receive $400,000.
The highest price paid by any of them for a unit was $334,000 in 2008.
One of the sellers had been an owner in Seagull Lodge for nearly 25 years, paying $77,000 in 1993.
Tony Velissariou, of Burleigh’s Tony V Real Estate, yesterday said the winning buyer was bidding from Sydney.
“I was on the phone to him for 80 minutes as the bidding went back and forward,” he said.
Mr Velissariou, who marketed the property with Luke Henderson, of The Professional Mermaid Beach, said the investor bought Seagull Lodge to hold for at least the medium term.
“He’s not interested in developing the site – he likes the income.”
The three-level Seagull Lodge is on a 647 sqm site in a medium-density residential zone and could take a building of up to three levels, or possibly higher subject to impact assessment. Mr Henderson said Seagull Ave, in common with other beachside Mermaid Beach streets, was a hotspot in terms of redevelopment.
“There’s big competition from people wanting sites on which to build villas and homes,” he said. “We well could see owners in other older lowrises taking the team route too to maximise their values.”