Palmer has rivals for his Sovereign crown
FOR billionaire and born-again politician Clive Palmer, it might be time to start looking in his Sovereign Islands rear-view mirror.
The buying by Clive and family that has seen well north of $20 million spent on property on the elite islands quickly is being emulated.
It’s quite conceivable that a couple, virtually unknown on the Gold Coast, could become the biggest owner of Sovereign properties.
Melburnian Matthew Malec, in tandem with wife Joanna, has been on something of a Sovereign spree.
They’ve bought nine or more homes, some settled and others apparently yet to settle.
The Malec outlay appears to have surpassed $20 million and might well be continuing.
The couple’s deals have all happened in the past nine months, an almost breakneck speed compared to the Palmer camp’s 12-year Sovereign love affair.
The Malecs obviously believe they can buy well on Sovereign and that there’s plenty of upside to come down the track.
They aren’t newcomers to the area with a renovated canal-front Paradise Point house bought for $1.36 million more than two years ago.
It was sold for $160,000 less last August, with the proceeds probably reinvested on Sovereign.
Joanna’s also had a brief flirtation with the Southport Central development, buying five titles in March last year and selling them three months later.
She and Matthew appear
to be the epitome of a migrant success story.
Both were born in Poland and they’re far from knocking on the retirement door – Matthew is 42 and Joanna 38.
Their Malec Brothers Transport operation was started by Matthew in 1997 as a courier business and has evolved into a full-blown logistic company with a US base.
A timber plantation arm was added in 2008 and today the Malec group owns and buys plantations in three states and exports raw logs.
It also harvests and exports logs in the US but stirred some community angst in North Carolina when it applied for, then in January withdrew, a permit to emit methyl bromide as part of its export business.
Much of the Malec buying on Sovereign has been done through The Development Collection Pty Ltd, which is solely owned by Matthew with Joanna the sole director.
Property records show the settled properties in the company’s collection range from $790,000 lot to a
$3.5 million home with fivebedroom, five bathroom, and a 10-car garage.
Then there’s a $3.4 million lot, spanning 1250sq m, in Brittanic Cres.
Of course, the Malecs don’t hold a big-ticket candle to Clive – yet.
His rather large Sovereign residence was bought nine years ago for $9.5 million and gave him the choice of at least six bedrooms, 11 bathrooms, and 22 spots in which to park the Palmer car fleet.
Meanwhile, property agents operating on Sovereign Islands must be chuffed over the Malec spending, especially The Professionals’ Chris Moyer, who is believed to have handled most of the deals.