It’s all about ocean for this Noble cause
PHILIP Noble, who could be described as a money man, has developed an obvious love for a “currency” with a difference – beachfront Gold Coast property.
Philip’s a former investment banker and these days a public servant, and a well-paid one.
Since late 2010 he’s been CEO of the Queensland Treasury Corporation, which provides financial services to the state and its various entities, including local governments.
The Brisbane-born Philip has been investing in oceanfront Gold Coast property for 14 years or more and has rolled over millions of dollars in at least six transactions that have stretched from Currumbin to Mermaid Beach.
The Noble buys have ranged between $700,000 and $6.5 million and the buying pace hasn’t slowed, although his targets have become more modest ones.
That’s perhaps because he’s indulged in a spot of buying in Brisbane.
Last year, showing his propensity for being near water, a $1.25-million riverfront apartment was acquired in The Freshwater development at New Farm.
The initial Gold Coast buys were made in Philip’s own name but latterly he’s made a couple through PKAT Investments, a company of which he is sole director but which is jointly owned with Katherina Sendzik.
The 54-year-old executive has quite an impressive curriculum vitae, working in senior roles at Credit Suisse,
Deutsche Bank and Bankers Trust prior to taking the CEO’s seat at Queensland Treasury.
The job pays well – he reportedly earned more than $1.2 million in 2017-18, or three times
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk’s $400,000.
The first visible Noble transactions were in Pacific Pde at Currumbin, a beachfront street that has Elephant Rock as a landmark.
The two homes in a property aptly called Bliss were sold in 2006 and 2007 for $2.85 million and $1.25 million.
Philip moved north to Palm Beach’s Jefferson Lane after his first Bliss sale, paying $2.5 million for a property which he sold four years later for $3.35 million.
Then came his beachfront “biggie”, a three-level home in Mermaid Beach’s Albatross Ave that cost $6.5 million in 2010.
The home was put on the market in mid-2015 with a price guide of $6.5 million to $6.9 million.
It sat around for 18 months and then, lo and behold, a buyer in the form of ex G8 childcare group chief financial officer Chris Sacre turned up with $7.25 million.
Philip, via PKAT, went on to buy a $700,000 apartment along the street in Albatross North and then, in November, a $1.25 million unit fronting the beach in Hedges Ave building Solano.
The Albatross North apartment sold for $800,000 in January.
Whether Philip, who qualifies to be called a beachfront bureaucrat, keeps his run of oceanfront deals going remains to be seen.