50 Cavill Avenue in Surfers Paradise sold for record-breaking price

The Gold Coast’s biggest office tower has smashed the previous record for a commercial property transaction in the city after being sold to new owners. FULL DETAILS

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THE Gold Coast’s biggest office tower, the 22-level 50 Cavill Avenue in Surfers Paradise, has sold for a record $113.5m.

The sale comes more than 18 months after a sales push was started by the listed GDI group, which paid $48.75m for the half-empty tower in 2016 and undertook a $10m upgrade.

The buyer is the Elanor Commercial Property Fund, which was believed to be on the verge of buying the property before Covid-19 hit.

It bought the tower for little more than the $110m it cost New Zealand-controlled company Corporate Equities to build in 1990.

The building was marketed at $130m a year later but it took six years to sell and achieved only $48.5m.

GDI managing-director Steve Gillard said the sale was a prime example of what his company did well.

“We realised that 50 Cavill Avenue could be the pre-eminent business address on the Gold Coast.

“We identified opportunities for capital expenditure to improve the asset’s appeal, reduce its operating costs, and improve its environmental performance.

“We were confident that if we did this the occupier market would follow.”

50 Cavill Ave has been sold for $113.5m.

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The tower today is 97 cent occupied and the Elanor fund is buying it on a yield of 6.8 per cent.

Fund manager David Burgess said the tower was being bought at “significantly below replacement cost”.

The previous record commercial transaction on the Gold Coast was the 2007 sale, at $106m, of the Corporate Centre at Bundall, which included a swath of adjoining land.

The 50 Cavill deal was handled by CBRE Sydney’s Scott Gray-Spencer, with collaboration from CBRE Gold Coast head Mark Witheriff, leasing agent Nick Selby and the office’s property management team.

Originally published as 50 Cavill Avenue in Surfers Paradise sold for record-breaking price