On the QT with Quentin Tod: Matthew and Joanna Malec spending big on Sovereign Island

A virtually unknown couple have bought so much property in this exclusive Gold Coast suburb that they are quickly catching up to billionaire Clive Palmer. So who are they?

FOR billionaire and born-again politician Clive Palmer, it might be time to start looking in his Sovereign Islands rear-view mirror.

The buying by Clive and family that has seen well north of $20 million spent on property on the elite islands quickly is being emulated.

It’s quite conceivable that a couple, virtually unknown on the Gold Coast, could become the biggest owner of Sovereign properties.

Melburnian Matthew Malec, in tandem with wife Joanna, has been on something of a Sovereign spree.

15 King James Court at Sovereign Island, bought by the Malec family for $2.1m

They’ve bought nine or more homes, some settled and others apparently yet to settle.

The Malec outlay appears to have surpassed $20 million and might well be continuing.

The couple’s deals all have occurred in the last nine months, almost breakneck speed compared to the Palmer camp’s 12-year Sovereign love affair.

The Malecs obviously believe they can buy well on Sovereign and that there’s plenty of upside down the track.

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They aren’t newcomers to the area, with a renovated canal-front Paradise Point house bought for $1.36 million more than two years ago.

15 King James Court at Sovereign Island, bought by the Malec family for $2.1m

It was sold for $160,000 less last August, with the proceeds probably reinvested on Sovereign.

Joanna’s also had a brief flirtation with the Southport Central development, buying five titles in March last year and selling them three months later.

She and Matthew appear to be the epitome of a migrant success story.

Both were born in Poland and they’re far from knocking on the retirement door — Matthew is 42 and Joanna 38.

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Their Malec Brothers Transport operation was started by Matthew in 1997 as a courier business and has evolved into a full-blown logistic company with a US base.

Sovereign Island. Picture Mike Batterham

A timber plantation arm was added in 2008 and today the Malec group owns and buys plantations in three states and exports raw logs.

It also harvests and exports logs in the US but stirred some community angst in North Carolina when it applied for, then in January withdrew, a permit to emit methyl bromide as part of its export business.

Much of the Malec buying on Sovereign has been done through The Development Collection Pty Ltd, which is solely owned by Matthew with Joanna the sole director.

Property records show the settled properties in the company’s collection range from $790,000 lot to a $3.5 million five-bedroom, five bathroom, 10-car garage house.

Sovereign Island

Then there’s a $3.4 million lot, spanning 1250 sqm, in Brittanic Cres.

Of course, the Malecs don’t hold a big-ticket candle to Clive — yet.

His rather large Sovereign residence was bought nine years ago for $9.5 million and gave him the choice of at least six bedrooms, 11 bathrooms, and 22 spots in which to park the Palmer car fleet.

Meanwhile, property agents operating on Sovereign Islands must be chuffed over the Malec spending, especially The Professionals’ Chris Moyer, who is believed to have handled most of the deals.

BUSINESS NEWS:

* TOM Tate, occupier of the city’s highest office, is out to sell a riverfront site, next to his Sorrento mayoral mansion, that he and wife Ruth bought for $1.5 million in mid-2017.

The move to auction the Waterview Cres lot appears to end mayor Tom’s ambition to sell the land and the mansion as one as a potential eight-lot subdivision.

The properties, which span 5261sqm and have an 80-metre river frontage, were marketed last year.

* GLENN Molloy, Paradise Waters resident and among investors who snared Couran Cove Island Resort in 2015, had no reason to be unhappy over a ‘speeding ticket’ last week.

He’s the major shareholder, speaking for around 14 million shares, in the PPK group and it was queried by the ASX after its shares doubled to $1.50 over a fortnight.

PPK, in its response, referred to its purchase on March 22 of a half stake in a boron nitride nanotube business.

* DUDLEY Quinlivan, who’s kept a low profile since his financial demise during the GFC, was spotted looking full of business at Main Beach the other day.

He was heading for the office of a broker offering funding to developers, which raised the question of whether the former property marketeer had ambitions in that direction.

Not so, says Dudley, who says he was inquiring on behalf of a Chinese developer in Melbourne who couldn’t source normal bank funding.