Child care pays nicely
WEALTHY childcare bosses are staking their claims on some of the Gold Coast’s fanciest homes, dropping millions on high-end properties last month alone.
The biggest house sale to settle in February was on Royal Albert Crescent at the Sovereign Islands, where a jaw-dropping five-bedroom mansion sold to Harmony Early Learning founder Gabriel Guifre for $8.7m.
The waterfront home, on a 725 sqm block, was advertised as a “no-expense-spared masterpiece” and boasts four levels, Italian furniture, a highend cocktail bar, home gym and cinema with a 4K projector and Cinemascope screen.
Previous owners and fellow Sovereign Islands residents Luca and Katrina Sanguigno are familiar sellers on Royal Albert Crescent, having sold No.50 for $3.8m in 2017.
Ms Guifre is not a new neighbour on the street, having settled on the sale of her former home at No.52 for $4.265m on March 8.
At the other end of the Coast, another childcare magnate splashed millions on a waterfront property, with Brisbane-based Green Leaves childcare boss Michael Hovey settling on a $6.35m home on coveted Jefferson Lane at Palm Beach.
The modest mid-century house occupies a plum 597sq m plot on the beachfront, which is zoned for buildings up to 26m.
It settled on February 9, with property records listing the seller as real estate agent and former financial adviser
Glenn Mckean.
Back on the Sovereign Islands, Peter Hawes, a boardgame designer who has sold a Brisbane home for $15m, bought a $7.8m supersite.
The 2053sq m Regents Court parcel involves three of the five lots in the Regents Point estate, developed by Gary Collison on land he had owned for more than two decades.
Mr Hawes, a doctor who is a former Australian touch football and athletics rep and these days is living at Main Beach, invented the Kayal board games, which sell internationally.
Still on the northern end of the Coast, former Dexus Property
CEO and Hedges Ave resident Victor Hoog Antink sold a vast Sanctuary Cove mansion for $6.25m.
As well as collecting highend properties, Mr Hoog Antink is an avid collector of Olympics memorabilia, with his private collection including a torch from every Summer Olympic Games since the torch relay began for Hitler’s 1936 Olympics in Berlin.
The six-bedroom, sevenbathroom home on Marine Drive East, known as “Plumeria” settled on February 15 to Nicola Dunne’s company Johnson Property Holdings, which was formerly associated with Terence Johnson.
Johnson Property had sold another mammoth mansion on the street just three months earlier, with that opulent five-bedroom, 11-bathroom waterfront home with parking for 20 cars settling for $17.7m to Gold Coast business tycoon Tony Quinn.
Surfers Paradise apartments also made their mark on big spenders’ list in February, with a full-floor apartment in the luxury beachfront Jade building settling for $5.375m on February 15.
The buyer, Adam Barnett Smith, bought himself, in the agent’s words “the epitome of Australian beachfront living and touching the sand in one of the most exclusive positions on the Gold Coast”.
The Northcliffe Tce property features a master suite with spa and steam room, private waveless-edge heated pool on the balcony and stunning ocean views.
registered director of a Homewares company in the UK, picked up the apartment for $3.6m in 2016.
Down the road, a pair of Sydneysiders splashed an eye-popping $5.1m for the penthouse of the 27-year-old Moroccan building.
The penthouse was offloaded by a company owned by Bruno Grollo, former patriarch of failed development and construction company Grocon, and jointly directed by two of his children, Adam and Leeanna.
New penthouse owners Helen and Michael Lionis have bought themselves a two-floor apartment, which includes a full-floor master bedroom with sweeping views from every room including the enormous marble bathroom.
Commercial deals again featured strongly in the month’s highest sales, including the $8.75m settlement of a former Ampol service station on one of the city’s busiest intersections.
The 6688sq m site at 519 Olsen Ave, at the corner of Southport-nerang Rd, settled on February 9 to new owner Pearl Energy, which is already completing demolition and earthworks there.
The energy company, which has a service station at Pimpama, plans another one on the Olsen Ave site.
The seller was a company directed by brothers Mark
and Tony Lowe.
Also among the city’s biggest sales for February was the $10.81m purchase of a prime slice of Hope Island, approved for 172 units and 40 marina berths, by an international developer.
The 1.322ha block at 14-16 Sickle Ave, settled for $10.81m on February 14 to company
Tengri Hope Island.
It is surrounded by construction sites for more than 600 apartments in three developments worth more than $400m by Aniko Group.
Tengri Hope Island is jointly directed and held by China-born Brisbane residents 50, and
39.