Gold Coast development: New $95m high-rise planned for central Main Beach

A developer linked to one of South Australia’s most famous property moguls has unveiled plans for a new 29-storey luxury high-rise in the heart of Main Beach.

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A DEVELOPER linked to one of South Australia’s most famous property moguls has unveiled plans for a new 29-storey luxury high-rise in the heart of Main Beach.

Polites Property Group and Descon Group Australia have filed with the Gold Coast City Council plans for La Mer, a $95 million tower on the corner of Beulah Lane and Main Beach Parade.

La Mer, French for “the sea”, is the latest tower to be fast-tracked to capitalise on the Gold Coast’s property boom with Polities planning to launch it to the market on June 5 and begin construction in May 2022.

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Alex Polites, the development group’s co-founder said he hoped the project would help revitalise Main Beach.

“We are really excited to be working on what we believe will be an incredibly iconic new apartment building for Main Beach,” he said.

“Main Beach has always been an exclusive Gold Coast suburb and we believe it is definitely on the rise again as one of the most popular residential locations in the city.”

The tower will have 29 single-level three-bedroom units, including a giant penthouse suite with its own terrace overlooking the ocean.

Main Beach. Picture: NIGEL HALLETT

Polites Property Group is headed by identical twins Alex and Marcus Polites, the grandsons of late Adelaide property mogul and BRW rich-lister Con Polites.

Many Gold Coast developers have rushed projects to the market in the past six months to capitalise on a booming property market.

An apartment insights report released in March by consulting firm Urbis showed sales ballooned 97 per cent in the final quarter of 2020 as interstate buyers jostled with Gold Coast owner-occupiers — and we are paying for it now.

In 2020, 22 new projects contained a total 1411 apartments, down from the 2164 units built in 2019.

The average number of apartments in new projects opened between 2018 and 2020 dropped from 91.8 to 66.8.

Construction of the new tower is expected to begin in May 2022.

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Based on current quarterly sales and supply, the report says the city has only 8.3 months supply of new apartments — if no new projects are finished. The Southern Beaches Precinct has only 2.6 months supply, but several projects are expected to launch in the next six months. The Southport and Main Beach area has about 4.2 months worth of stock.

Steve Morton of Zone Town Planning worked on La Mer and said it would help arrest the shortage of available units.

“The 3580 Main Beach Parade proposal is a modern built form outcome that will make a positive contribution to the character of the Main Beach locality,” he said.

“The code assessable development represents an efficient use of land zoned for high density residential outcomes that ensures that all units have a minimum of 2 carparking spaces.

“The proposal is expected to assist in addressing the significant dwelling supply shortfall currently being experienced within the city.”

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