Sales slow in Gold Coast Soul, big buys at Sovereign Islands, $140m Australia Fair deal and more
Trouble selling at Soul, a $140 million deal on Australia Fair, million-dollar buys at Sovereign Islands and more in this week’s Bizzy Bits. Read all about it
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TIS‘ the season for trawling through property sales lists — and the new instalment reveals it’s not as easy nor lucrative as it sounds to sell your Soul, or at least your stake in it.
The latest sale in the beachfront super tower was made by Baiyan Cheng, who sold apartment 4101 for $2.7 million after 56 days with the last listed price of $2.98 million.
Cheng is walking away with sore pockets, having purchased his apartment from developer Juniper for $2.9 million in 2011.
And Cheng’s involvement with Soul doesn’t end with the sale of 4101.
Property records also show this investor is co-owner of 159 Hedges Ave, along with Jinmin Qu.
The pair’s Millionaire’s Row 2016 purchase for $13.25 million remains one of the top sales ever for the exclusive street.
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Hedges co-owner Qu has not shared Cheng’s luck in Soul, having first listed apartment 6601 — a palatial sub penthouse taking up an entire floor of the tower — back in November 2017.
Apartment 6601, which Qu bought from the developer for $4.6 million in 2011, had a last listed price of $4.98 million but is currently advertised at a “reduced price on application”.
The sky side of Soul hasn’t logged a great 2018.
Aquis billionaire Tony Fung took a $500,000 loss earlier this year on the four-floor penthouse, which he offloaded for $6.5 million after shelling out $7 million for it in 2015.
This month Xin Wang, chairman of Spirit developer Forise, failed to sell his sub penthouse at auction.
That 421 sqm sky-home drew a top bid of $3.2 million, or $300,000 less than Wang paid receivers five years ago. The auction closed after a $3.5 million vendor bid was entered.
Anyone with ambitions and means to live in Soul has several options among the current listings which, include Qu’s apartment 6601 and Wang’s 6801 as well as another sub penthouse at 6401, listed at $4.95 million, and another at 6101 advertised at $2.699 million.
BRISBANE’S wealthy Fu family has shuffled the ownership of Southport shopping centre Australia Fair after buying out its investment partner — which is also a family company.
Property records indicate the family, through its YFG Shopping Centres, bought out partner Trondage Enterprises for $140 million, with the deal settling on November 9.
Taiwan-born Gordon Fu, whose wealth was estimated at $877 million last year, has worked with his son-in-law Jack Lin to undertake a $25 million dollar redevelopment of Australia Fair, which has received a new food court, and an upgrade to its Chinatown section, now named Australia Fair Metro.
Company searches reveal Trondage Enterprises is owned by the Lin family.
The companies have a vast shared portfolio of commercial property, including the Aspley Hypermarket, Brookside Shopping Centre, Stafford City Shopping Centre, Toowong Village Shopping Centre, Capalaba Park, Redbank Collingwood Park Sports Complex and Logan Central.
By itself, YFG owns Australia Fair, Fairfield Gardens, Calamvale Central and Mount Gravatt Plaza.
YFG also owns Sunnybank Hills Shoppingtown, Sunny Park Shopping Centre and Sunnybank Plaza in Mr Fu’s home suburb, and the company has also quietly snapped up five houses neighbouring the plaza.
By itself, Trondage owns Margate Village Shopping Centre, Kippa-Ring Shopping Centre, Arndale Shopping Centre and Cannon Hill Kmart Plaza.
HIGH-profile Gold Coast equestrian couple Ken Dowsett and Linda Spratley have offloaded their stunning Sovereign Island mansion after a lengthy sales campaign.
Property records show the four-bedroom, five-bathroom home at Knightsbridge Pde West, which had been marketed since January, settled for $5.275 million on November 9.
The couple had bought the home, named Santosha — Sanskrit for contentment — three years earlier for $5.1 million.
It has been listed in January for $7.2 million, with its listing price subsequently reduced to $6.5 million.
The waterfront property was designed by Noosa architect Paul Clout and features a cinema, cellar, library, wet bar, pool and pontoon.
Its new owner, a company linked to cardiologist Rajkamal Alfred Mohan and neurologist Meenakshi Raj, will also have space in the basement garage for eight cars.
VICTIMS of the world’s biggest known Ponzi scheme may receive a tiny drop in the ocean of billions they’re owed after the a luxury home at Sanctuary Cove sold for $3.9 million.
The mansion at 1019 Edgecliff Drive and an adjacent block at 1020 was purchased in 2011 by Pearls group, via a related entity, for $4.9 million with Pearls allegedly using funds from the scam.
Property records have revealed the property’s new owners, a couple who already have Sanctuary Cove listed as their home address, settled on the home on November 13.
Pearls also bought the Sheraton Mirage Hotel on the Southport Spit for $62.5 million before that was offloaded for $140 million early last year.
The Pearls Ponzi scheme reportedly cheated up to 50 million Indians out of $10 billion.
The property was first auctioned in May, 2016, by Pearls, which declined a $4.6 million bid.
Shortly afterwards the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), which had cottoned onto the Ponzi scheme, took over before the Federal Court seized jurisdiction over the property and appointed receivers.
Pearls head Nirmal Singh Bhangoo was jailed in the wake of the collapse of the Ponzi scheme.
His daughter Barinda was able to enjoy the house, which has five bedrooms, six bathrooms, a lift, parking for six cars and a jetty.
However it is not known whether Mr Bhangoo, who apparently started out selling milk in a village in the Punjab, ever stepped through the mansion’s front door.
CHRIS Moyer, a Canadian ice-hockey player who started life as a waiter when he moved to Australia in the early 2000s, has had his real-estate skates on at the northern end of the Gold Coast.
The 41-year-old bachelor has crested $500 million in sales in a property career that started less little more than 15 years ago.
His first sale was a $240,000 house at Upper Coomera on which he received a $1500 commission.
Six months later he sold a house at the Sovereign Islands and pocketed a $15,000 commission.
Chris, who initially aspired to be a lawyer when he arrived in Queensland, hit the $300 million in sales in 2012, aided by some deals with billionaire Clive Palmer.
The $200 million in sales since then has included selling a home in Sovereign’s Knightsbridge Pde West twice for more than $5 million.
His biggest win came several years ago when he sold Sovereign mansion Utopia for $9 million.
Between sales he’s kept his hand in at ice-hockey and at 36 became the oldest player to push the puck for the Queensland state team.
The agent for The Professionals at Paradise Point hasn’t opted for a trip home to Vancouver to celebrate his $500 million milestone.
He’s gone for something a tad warmer — he’s on a South Pacific cruise with a girlfriend.
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