Gold Coast PROPERTY

ALL 38 housing lots in Casuarina’s town centre precinct on the Tweed Coast have sold within about six weeks of their release.

No official marketing was needed with 32 of the lots finding buyers via word-of-mouth within the first two weeks and the remaining six sales just finalised.

The land has earned sales of more than $12.2 million for developer Consolidated Properties, which plans to start work on the $400 million town centre in July.

Colliers International project marketing director Brinton Keath said the recent approval of the town centre, to be known as Casuarina Village, had generated huge interest and sales in the area.

Mr Keath said the majority of the land buyers were locals who paid between $290,000 and $400,000 for the lots, which ranged from 450sq m to 583sq m.

Casuarina Village will include a Coles-anchored shopping centre, a childcare centre, restaurants, shops, apartments, a beachfront resort, 1.35ha of public open space and about 8000sq m of beachfront parkland.

Consolidated Properties managing director Don O’Rorke said the precinct would include a 14m-wide main boulevard with an architect-designed entry statement that would become the community’s ‘front door’. The shopping centre, boutiques, restaurants and apartments will line the boulevard which will stretch through to the beachfront.

Completion of the town centre’s first stage – which includes the 2500sq m Coles, 1160sq m of shops and the boulevard – is expected by late 2011.

Consolidated is presently seeking approval for its final land release — 170 lots, averaging 600sq m, in The Sands precinct, just north of the town centre precinct and on the western side of Casuarina Way.

The developer hopes to release The Sands, which borders Cudgen Creek, later in the year.

In what could be the highest sale south of Mermaid Beach, a Currumbin property with 360-degree views of the Coast sold last night for $8.2 million.

But the sale hoodoo continues for the Q1 penthouse, which was passed in at the same Ray White Broadbeach and Mermaid Waters auction, although it could have a new owner late tomorrow.

Marketing agent of the James Street property in Currumbin, Troy Dowker, said it was a landmark sale.

“As far as my knowledge goes, it’s the highest residential sale south of Mermaid Beach,” he said.

“That’s a huge injection of confidence for the prestige section of the market on the Gold Coast.”

The Gold Coast buyers, who wished to remain anonymous, now have a 360-degree view of the city and Hinterland.

Richard and Amanda Adams bought the land for $4.4 million in 2007, then built an opulent, multimillion-dollar house.

It features two pools, five bedrooms, a home theatre and is finished in Italian marble and limestone.

The auction looked like falling through at $7.75 million and was put on hold, but when bidding started again it leaped to $8.2 million.

While the Q1 penthouse was passed in at $4.75 million, Ray White Broadbeach and Mermaid Beach principal Gary Gannon said he was confident it would be sold in the next 48 hours.

The penthouse was bought by Japanese tycoon Akeo Kakemoto for $8.9 million in 2002, but has never been lived in.

It has been on the market almost constantly from 2005, being passed in at auctions, having sales collapse and being marketed by a constantly changing array of real estate agents.

The asking price was once more than $10 million but the reserve price is now believed to be less than $6 million.

Mr Gannon said it was not desperation for money that was driving the sale but a wish to move on.

“(Akeo Kakemoto) has stayed in it for six nights in the last six years,” he said.

He said a Melbourne businessman was showing keen interest and a deal could be done by tomorrow.

He said they would likely use it as a holiday home, not a permanent residence.

LIVING among the clouds, a pool in the lounge room, a Hugh Hefner-style pad or $20 million of ultimate beachfront luxury — never have so many impressive Gold Coast penthouses been on the market at the same time.

From the 360-degree views offered from the Q1 tower penthouse to $20 million opulence at exclusive Surfers Paradise building Jade, to the stark black interior of a Pivotal Point penthouse or the lavish surrounds of Ephraim Island’s top offering — penthouses on the Coast have it all.

Seven of what are arguably the Coast’s top 10 penthouse properties have landed on the market at once, with the three-level lavish Jade at No.1 with a $20 million-plus price tag.

It has five bedrooms, a four-car lock-up garage, two kitchens and a pool next to the living room with views over the Coast.

A close second is the 940sqm penthouse at Q1, which sprawls across one level with a pool in the lounge room — within sight as you step out of the lift.

Ray White Broadbeach principal Gary Gannon is taking the never-lived-in property to auction for Japanese investor Akeo Kakemoto, who bought it off the plan and decided to sell on the back of the strength of the Japanese yen.

With floor-to-ceiling windows, the 74th floor apartment is so high residents look down on the city’s New Year’s Eve fireworks that are set off from the building.

“It is a true penthouse on the Gold Coast,” said Mr Gannon.

Even the bathroom has views across the ocean and the Gold Coast skyline.

The Elysee at Kirra penthouse is just as impressive.

The architect-designed super luxury 864sqm beachfront property has an inground pool, 4m high ceilings, a private internal lift, Iranian marble floors, an 18m lap pool and a four-car lock-up garage.

The Allure, Sentinel at Budds Beach, Rivage Royale and Chevron Renaissance also offer lavish beachfront penthouse living but there are also the extravagant penthouses that give the Gold Coast its variety.

The Vogue penthouse appears to have channelled Playboy mogul Hugh Hefner’s taste with the two-level, two-bedroom home featuring an exotic theme with fireplaces, leather and granite.

Then there is the Pivotal Point penthouse at Southport which is opposite to the features of most other super apartments.

Devoid of colour, black dominates creating a stark contrast and very sexy feel.

The Rivage Royale, Pivotal Point and Chevron Renaissance are the only three penthouses of the top 10 not on the market.

SIZE does not matter for Elizabeth Schwartz — it is all about position when it comes to living on the Coast and there is an increasing number of people who feel the same.

The 22-year-old’s one-bedroom Broadbeach apartment is just a short walk and a lift ride from everything she needs — the beach, restaurants, shops and nightclubs.

“We spend more time outside — we eat here, drink here and play here. It has everything we need,” she said.

Gold Coast City Council planning chairman Ted Shepherd said Ms Schwartz was one of a growing number of people who were happy to be squeezed on space as long as their apartment was centrally located — and developers were more than happy to comply.

Cr Shepherd said there had been an increasing number of one-bedroom apartment developments proposed in the past year, which was a shift from the years before.

“Before that, the unit developments were getting bigger and bigger — in some cases we were getting developments that were one unit per floor,” he said.

Phillip Usher Construction recently advertised a proposed change for its high-rise development on Marine Parade in Southport — increasing bedrooms from 356 to 631 as part of a planned shift to smaller apartments.

Cr Shepherd said single-bedroom unit complexes were popular in Southport, Surfers Paradise and Broadbeach.

“It is all about people living that cosmopolitan lifestyle,” he said.

“They want to go out and eat and drink and just come home to sleep.”

Cr Shepherd said the trend had real advantages for buyers and sellers.

“Developers are … having trouble selling some of the larger units in the current economic circumstances and for those people looking to get into the property market, they are able to do so with these single-bedroom units at a lower cost,” he said.

Midwood Report author and property expert Bill Morris said the trend to high-density high-rise developments would only increase.

“High-density (development) is a key part of the Queensland Government’s South-East Queensland Regional Plan,” said Mr Morris.

“I only see density increasing down the track.

“If you already have the services, it makes sense up until a point to keep developing in those areas.”

But Mr Morris said higher density developments did not necessarily mean a lower cost for the buyer.

“These developments are occurring in the inner city and the price of the apartments can still be quite high,” he said.?