Unit turnover a real jewel for developer

THE developer of the beachfront Jewel triple towers (above) has made a rapid near $800,000 profit on an apartment it secretly bought from a loss-making Arab sultan.

AW Jewel bought the twobedroom apartment from Abu Dhabi sultan Adnan Saif Al Nuaimi before auction in May for $1.9 million.

The company’s name was put under wraps and it did not settle the buy until August.

Property records show that three weeks later it finalised a sale at $2.67 million.

The sultan had bought the apartment off the plan, after viewing it on a video link, for that same amount, $2.67 million, in 2016 and exited with a $770,0000 loss.

The new owner of the 30thfloor property is Hong Shang, who in July sold a Paradise Waters home for $4.3 million.

The beachfront Jewel apartment spans 165sq m and includes a study, two bathrooms and a large balcony.

It was put on the market in May and sold a planned auction of it was halted, despite 98 parties inspecting it.

Agent Travis Brown later said there was a non-disclosure agreement relating to the sale ‘so the buyer doesn’t want to be known’.

He said the $1.9 million paid for it was ‘above where everyone else was’.

The bulk of the apartments at the $1.4 billion Jewel are sitting empty and there has been no indication from the developer about when they might be marketed.

A valuer yesterday said the sale at the original $2.67 million could be interpreted as an effort to protect Jewel values.

“If the money lost by the sultan was reflected throughout the project, the value of the unsold apartments would dive by tens of millions of dollars.”