Beachfront sale record ‘eclipsed’
A bidding wave has swamped the record for beachfront land on the Gold Coast, with a near 60-year-old unit block selling for $11.5m.
The price for the 405sq m holding at Mermaid Beach represents $28,395 a square metre, topping a $23,703 figure set last year on the same oceanfront strip.
Both figures are for residential land and exceed the highest prices developers have paid for tower sites.
The new figure was set at an auction of 2 Surf St, which is occupied by a three-level building that dates back to 1966 and has a 12.5m beach frontage.
The land, metres from Albatross Ave, has a northeastern aspect and is zoned for a building of up to 15m.
Kollosche agency principal Michael Kollosche on Tuesday said the sale, to a private Gold Coast buyer, not only topped the previous beachfront land record for the city but “eclipsed it significantly”.
“The price reflects the scarcity of available beachfront land and the high demand that exists for such land,” he said.
Mr Kollosche, who marketed the property with colleague Harry Kakavas, said the holding drew 147 inquiries and of the 11 people who registered to bid at the auction, nine were active.
The sellers of 2 Surf St were former property agent John Natoli, who sold many beachfront homes during his career, and property player Scott Keatley.
The record sale is positive news for billionaire Clive Palmer, who in February bought two Mermaid beachfront properties in a near $45m splash – one block spanning 1214sq m, and the other a modern home on 515sq m.