Developers swoop on $100m buy-up
DEVELOPERS splashed almost $100m on Gold Coast properties in a single month, targeting some of the city’s most tightly-held suburbs for their next big projects.
Transactions for land in Mermaid Beach, Main Beach, Palm Beach and Surfers Paradise were settled in March, with more than 650 apartments planned for the sites.
Melbourne rich-lister and United Petroleum co-owner Eddie Hirsch paid $11m for two prime slices of Mermaid Beach, where there are plans for a triangular, 26-level, 146apartment tower named Yves.
Mr Hirsch’s company Mermaid Qld picked up 11 properties at 7 and 9 Mermaid Ave, in a multi-sale transaction worth $11m that settled on March 25.
Apartments in Yves, being marketed for between $540,000 and $5.5m, will be developed by the Hirsch family in conjunction with property lawyer and developer Daniel Faigen.
Mr Hirsch and United cofounder Avi Silver were last month named Australia’s fifth richest people in The List, with a fortune of $3.66bn.
The Mermaid land, currently home to two walk-up unit blocks, was sold by Jia Tai, a company held by Tallai residents Tai Pan and Jia Guo.
The sellers had gathered the 12 units in the two properties by paying individual owners between $350,000 and $463,000 each in 2015.
Also among the developers settling big-ticket transactions in March were Sanctuary Cove couple Kym and Adam Barclay.
The pair, which operates Gallery Group, paid $13.51m for the row of 1960s-era weatherboard homes at 203-211 Surf Pde.
Barclay company GFP No. 12 settled five lots spanning 2064sq m at Surfers Paradise, which it contracted to buy last May.
The vendors were members of Coomera-based Costi family – Jim, Nicky and George.
The Costi family had picked up one of the lots for $830,000 in 2011, one in 1992 for $207,000 and another for $47,500 in 1979.
Gallery Group has submitted plans for a 36-storey residential tower, Chalk, at the site, comprising 90 apartments, nine “sky homes” and a cafe.
Also among the millionplus settlements in March were the $10.8m purchase of an ageing set of shops at 1134 Gold Coast Hwy at Palm Beach. The shops, which currently include a masseuse, takeaway store and hearing clinic, are on 1643sq m and were picked up by development group Changfa.
The vendor was Galabroad, a company directed and held by Gold Coaster Moira Fasullo.
Singapore-owned Changfa was developer of the Lyra project at Hope Island, which copped a fine for not paying a contractor on time in 2019.
Aside from Lyra, and an apartment building in Leichhardt NSW, all Changfa’s previous developments have been in China.
Further north at Main Beach, a company linked to developer Jonathan Drew paid $8.325m for four lots on Cronin Ave, where two towers of 23 and 31 storeys are planned.
Drew Group has spent more than $20m buying up units and houses from numbers 11-21 on the avenue, at prices between $300,000 and $2.1m, for its twin-tower Lagoon project.
Drew Group’s other projects include The Beach Houses at Kirra and Village at Palm Beach.
While some developers were buying up, one of the biggest players was selling out.
Three sites totalling $55.6m were settled by ASXlisted developer Sunland in March. The group sold its 7071sq m Greenmount Beach Resort at Coolangatta to a company directed by its own founders, Soheil and Sahba Abedian, for $42.3m.
The buy, which the ASX originally was told was being made via Arium Group, was settled by Arivm Greenmount.
Sunland made another hefty settlement in March, offloading 10 lots on Marine Pde and Frank St in Labrador, the former site of a popular KFC, to developer Ron Bakir’s Homecorp for $12m.
Homecorp is building its $150m Eve Residences on the site.
The third site sold by Sunland in March was an oddshaped 512sq m slice of land near its Magnoli project at Palm Beach.
The lot, at 8 Nineteenth Ave, sold for $2.515m to Clpcell Investments, a company directed and held by western Sydneysider Natalie Crostato.