Japanese car giant Toyota eyes Gold Coast developments

A BUILDING company controlled by a Japanese car giant has taken control of a huge stake in a Gold Coast developer group.

TOYOTA, the Japanese car giant whose name is synonymous with the ‘Oh what a feeling!’ slogan, appears to have a very happy feeling about the Gold Coast.

A building company controlled by Toyota has slipped into town and taken a controlling stake in the construction arm of developer Ron Bakir’s Homecorp group.

Misawa Homes, which has annual sales of $A5 billion, has bought 51 per cent of the business, which already is building hundreds of homes a year.

Ron, who made his name with mobile-phone business Crazy Ron’s which he started at 17, won’t get on the blower to talk about the deal or what he’s been paid.

Ron Bakir won’t disclose how much he’s been paid in the deal. Photo: Regi Varghese

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Misawa, which has built more than 1.3 million homes, also hasn’t put a figure on the deal.

The Tokyo-based group, in which Toyota’s homes division moved to majority control two years ago, has revealed the transaction in Tokyo in an announcement that’s not exactly laced with detail.

However, it’s likely that Misawa will use what is today known as Homecorp Constructions as a stepping stone to operating not just in Queensland but in other states.

That would almost certainly mean getting into the display-home business and purpose-building for aspiring homeowners.

Ron, who apparently still will run the business, started Homecorp 12 years ago and it operates between the Sunshine Coast and northern NSW, with Toowoomba thrown in.

The construction arm’s major Gold Coast activity is at the Sunland Group’s The Heights estate, a legacy of Peter Drake’s failed LM funds management business, at Pimpama.

Misawa has told its shareholders that Homecorp Constructions is Queensland’s 11th biggest builder.

It appears the Japanese group might have had Australian ambitions for some time.

An office, which has a former Misawa Finland boss in charge, was opened in Brisbane a couple of years back.

Houses built by Homecorp at Sunland's The Height's community.

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Misawa executives apparently didn’t just motor into down the M1 in a Lexus and nail a quick deal with Ron in his Surfers Paradise offices.

By all accounts, talks went on for quite some considerable time and, given that Toyota’s reputation’s involved, there was quite a bit of due diligence.

Misawa was started in 1967 and has become a housing innovator -- its initial homes pioneered a wooden panel adhesion system for prefabricated construction.

The group trumpets its innovation and technology successes by noting that it’s designed and built most of the facilities at Japan’s Showa base in Antarctica.

Misawa says that shows that the ‘high performance’ features inherent in its homes make life pleasant and safe, even in a harsh environment like that of Antarctica.

Perhaps that means ‘Outback, here we come’.

And who knows, buyers of Home Construction/Misawa homes on the Gold Coast might get more than a bottle of French champagne on the bench when they get the front-door key – how about a Toyota in the garage!

20 Seafarer Court, Paradise Waters.

CLIVE Thomas, owner of international freight-forwarding business C.T., appears set to take some financial pain on a waterfront Paradise Waters mansion that cost $6.5 million 11 years ago.

Clive and wife Lee-Anne put the Seafarer Crt home, which fronts a 60-metre sandy beach, on the market in 2016, chasing $6.85 million.

It’s emerged that a buyer who is yet to settle the purchase is paying $5.35 million for the two-level home, which sits on a 1375sqm site.

Mermaid Beach looks set to get some exciting news.

LINDSAY Sinclair, founder of bathroom group Highgrove, has again tapped into the eastern side of the planned light-rail route at Mermaid Beach.

Back in May he spent $1.6 million on a commercial property owned by retired real estate agency boss John Henderson and family.

Now Lindsay, who’s planning a beachfront Mermaid home, has taken possession, after outlaying $3.5 million, of an adjoining property and might well also have the one north of that under contract.

More details on the way for Couran Cove Resort. Picture by Scott Fletcher

MORE details have emerged over the listed Eureka group’s September sale of 28 cabins and apartments at the Couran Cove Resort at little more than $70,000 a title.

The $2.01 million buyer was WN Developments, a Sydney trustee company of which a fellow called Graeme Webb is a director.

Graeme sits on the board of the listed PPK group, chaired by Robin Levison, who wore the chairman’s hat at Eureka until March.