Gold Coast Jewel sales suspended as the new owner Yuhu Group is unlicensed in Queensland

UPDATE: THE reason Jewel’s new owners have been left without a real estate licence has been revealed after they suspended sales and stood down agents.

THE new owners of the $900 million Jewel development have suspended sales and their sales agents have been stood down as the company is not licensed to sell real estate in Queensland.

A company linked to investment company Yuhu Group took on the Australian assets of flailing Chinese property group Wanda for $1.13 billion earlier this month, but the Sydney based company does not hold a Queensland corporate real estate licence.

The application process can take up to six weeks.

Under an aligned deal, the company also purchased the share of Jewel owned by Ridong Group, which the Bulletin understands settled their sale this week.

An artist's impression of the $1 billion jewel project at Surfers Paradise

The sale of the Wanda portion is to be put to Wanda shareholders before it is finalised, however that is understood to be a formality as interests related to billionaire Wanda founder Wang Jianlin are majority shareholders.

Staff at the project’s luxurious Cavill Ave sales office have been told to close indefinitely from this afternoon. Potential buyers are being told the closure is temporary.

The Jewel sales office in Surfers Paradise this morning. Photo: Kathleen Skene

A spokesman for Yuhu Group Australia and AWH said the acquisition process had not yet been finalised.

“On the issue of licensing, the company would of course comply with all necessary requirements before implementing a renewed sales and marketing strategy, which was in the planning,” he said.

The Bulletin understands the gap in licensing came about because Yuhu settled the share of the project previously held by Ridong Group.

Ridong’s related company Pearl Ocean Properties had been the licensed entity handling Jewel sales and it holds a corporate licence until July 2019.

WANDA’S JEWEL `NOT FOR SALE’

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Construction is well under way at Jewel. Photo by Richard Gosling

Yuhu has had a horrible first week as conditional owners of the Wanda assets, with the site of Jewel’s sister development in Sydney’s Circular Quay going up in flames yesterday.

The company today said the fire at the project demolition site was unfortunate and that “Yuhu placed highest priority on workplace safety and expected the same of contractors it engaged”.

The properties were purchased by AWH Investment Group Pty Ltd, which is wholly owned by a company called Cloudstone Capital which was created three weeks ago and has a single shareholder — 23-year-old Huang Jiquan, an Australian citizen born in Guangzhou.

The massive fire which broke out in Circular Quay Tuesday February 13 2018. Picture: Joe Barker

Mr Huang’s father, Huang Xiangmo, is founder of Yuhu Group, which was linked to a donations scandal that engulfed the Labor Party last month culminating in the resignation of Labor Senator Sam Dastyari.

None of those companies are registered on the Office of Fair Trading’s licence database, and neither Mr Huang junior nor senior is on the register either.

To legally sell property in Queensland, the corporation must be licensed as well as individual agents.

Artist's impression of the $1 billion jewel project at Surfers Paradise

Yuhu Group CEO Nick Tobin, who’s been in the job since December, last month said the purchase would have “no impact” on the development of Jewel, and that it would still include a Wanda Vista Hotel.

“It should be fantastic,” he said.

“These are iconic buildings and we’re very excited to have picked up these assets.”

The Jewel sales office in Surfers Paradise this morning. Photo: Kathleen Skene

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