Perennial Rich Lister Sam Chong, Australia's second biggest individual payer of corporate tax, has diversified out of coal and into Brisbane property in recent years, but the fossil fuel may be back in the ascendancy in his portfolio.

The 76-year-old Malaysian-born mining engineer opened his Westin Hotel in Brisbane last November, and is currently selling the last of the 184 luxury apartments above the $325 million project – with a contractual ban on any rentals less than six months being touted as a benefit to buyers.