Step inside Gold Coast brothel Secret Liaison where sex is no longer for sale
IT’S like the owners of this Gold Coast brothel just left one day and never returned. Four-poster beds with satin sheets, condoms, lubricant and rubber gloves fill the drawers. Take a look inside.
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“DON’T be shy, give it a try!”
The catchcry is one you cannot miss when you enter the site formerly operating as Gold Coast brothel Secret Liaisons.
It is scrawled on mirrors and marketing material throughout the five-bedroom house of sin in a discrete location in a Burleigh industrial estate.
But it seems too many were too shy or not willing to give it a try with the brothel site of more than 15 years being stripped out ahead of demolition.
The operator in part blamed the mushrooming of unregulated massage shops the length of the Coast offering cheap body rubs and illegal sexual services.
After securing the lease, he bought the site in November for $1 million — then promptly closed just a month later.
The site sold this week for $950,000 to a neighbouring business for use as a storage depot.
Ray White Broadbeach commercial sales consultant Adam Grbcic took the Gold Coast Bulletin on a tour of the largely untouched interior just before it was bowled over.
He’s sold the site several times and consulted on other brothel site sales in the past: “Once you get one, you seem to get them all.”
A Secret Liaisons reception welcome notice tells clients their business is valued and it is hoped their stay is a pleasurable one.
“We would appreciate your co-operation in treating both the management and service providers with the utmost respect that they deserve.”
In staff quarters behind reception, orange lockers still have women’s names on them.
All of the bedrooms remain complete with every type of condom you can imagine, lubricant, moisturiser, rubber gloves and tissues. Lots and lots of tissues.
A laminated notice in the staffroom behind reception warns to conduct a sexually transmitted disease (STI) check with clients: “No exceptions”.
“You have no idea who your client has unprotected sex with or if he has been exposed to an STI since his last visit. Even if you see your client every week, an STI check must still be performed,” it says.
Mr Grbcic remarks, “It’s all a bit sad”, jarring with the image portrayed on a framed poster of hit movie Pretty Woman which appears to be signed by its star Julia Roberts.
It sits at the end of the dim hallway towards the exit and Mr Grbcic speculates it might be worth a few bob if the signature is legit.
Returns for landlords with brothel tenancies have tended to receive very healthy yields of 12 to 14 per cent, compared to an average six to eight for commercial property, he said.
“But they can potentially be volatile tenants,” Mr Grbcic said, adding the Secret Liaisons operator had run things well but just suffered at the hands of unregulated competition.
“I think everyone would agree most massage places on the Coast aren’t actually just that. It’s the oldest industry but it’s dead. I don’t know how the other guys are trading.”
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