On the QT: Money man Philip Noble develops love for Gold Coast’s beachfront property

A prominent former investment banker has developed a love for the Gold Coast’s beachfront properties and is splashing out millions to secure some of the city’s best real estate.

PHILIP Noble, who could be described as a money man, has developed an obvious love for a “currency” with a difference – beachfront Gold Coast property.

Philip’s a former investment banker and these days a public servant, and a well-paid one.

Since late 2010 he’s been CEO of the Queensland Treasury Corporation, which provides financial services to the state and its various entities, including local governments.

The Brisbane-born fellow has been investing in oceanfront Gold Coast property for 14 years or more and has rolled over millions of dollars in at least six transactions that have stretched from Currumbin to Mermaid Beach.

The Noble buys have ranged between $700,000 and $6.5 million and the buying pace hasn’t slowed, although his targets have become more modest ones.

That’s perhaps because he’s indulged in a spot of buying in Brisbane.

Noble buys have ranged between $700,000 and $6.5 million.

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Last year, showing his propensity for being near water, a $1.25 million riverfront apartment was acquired in The Freshwater development at New Farm.

The initial Gold Coast buys were made in Philip’s own name but latterly he’s made a couple through PKAT Investments, a $2 company of which he is sole director but which is jointly owned with Katherina Sendzik.

The 54-year-old executive has quite an impressive CV, working in senior roles at Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank and Bankers Trust prior to taking the CEO’s seat at Queensland Treasury.

The job pays well – he reportedly earned more than $1.2 million in 2017-18, or three times Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk’s $400,000.

The first visible Noble transactions were in Pacific Pde at Currumbin, a beachfront street that has Elephant Rock as a landmark.

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The two homes in a property aptly called Bliss were sold in 2006 and 2007 for $2.85 million and $1.25 million.

Philip moved north to Palm Beach’s Jefferson Lane after his first Bliss sale, paying $2.5 million for a property which he sold four years later for $3.35 million.

The three-level home cost $6.5 million.

Then came his beachfront ‘biggie’, a three-level home in Mermaid Beach’s Albatross Ave that cost $6.5 million in 2010.

The home was put on the market in mid-2015 with a price guide of $6.5 million to $6.9 million.

It sat around for 18 months and then, lo and behold, a buyer in the form of ex G8 childcare group chief financial officer Chris Sacre turned up with $7.25 million.

Philip, via PKAT, went on to buy a $700,000 apartment along the street in Albatross North and then, in November, a $1.25 million unit fronting the beach in Hedges Ave building Solano.

The Albatross North apartment sold for $800,000 in January.

Whether Philip, who qualifies to be called a beachfront bureaucrat, keeps his run of oceanfront deals going remains to be seen.

OTHER BUSINESS NEWS: 

Steve Cavalier could be set to buy in Varsity Lakes.

STEVE Cavalier, Harvey Norman’s top man in Queensland and intermittent property investor, could be set to have a flutter at Varsity Lakes.

He’s reportedly going to have a minor stake in a consortium that plans to develop a site owned by the Sunland Group for the past six years.

Steve, owner of a $19 million beachfront home at Mermaid Beach, might have developer Ron Bakir and construction group Condev as partners in the venture.

Businessman Otto Pfeiffer has once again taken his property off the market. ANNA ROGERS

OTTO Pfeiffer, one-time owner of a former waterski park at Coombabah, has shelved his latest attempt to sell a riverfront Carrara property he’s been trying to quit for 20 years.

Otto, who’s used numerous agents over time, has taken Villa Riverbend off the market after finding no joy in his latest quest to find a buyer with $15 million.

Efforts to exit the 1400 sqm ‘villa’, which is on a 1.75ha site, have included a sales campaign with an Elvis touch.

Brent Martens has kicked a $400,000-plus goal. Picture Mike Batterham

BRENT Martens, a Harcourts Coastal property agency staffer, appears to have kicked a $400,000-plus goal in a street near the beach at Mermaid Beach.

He and Melissa Fryer bought a Bayden Goddard-designed house in Seabeach Ave for $1.956 million two years ago, a property that had been home to Harcourts Coastal chiefs Dane and Kym Atherton.

A buyer apparently has rocked up with $2.4 million and the house has been advertised for rent at $2500 a week.