On The QT: Prices gradually rise in Mermaid Beach’s ‘out-of-date’ Millionaires’ Row

The price tide is slowly turning for the Gold Coast’s Millionaires’ Row, with many calling the tag ‘out-of-date’.

THE price tide very gradually is rising in the beachfront Mermaid Beach street that carries the out-of-date and understated tag Millionaires’ Row.

That said, that tide is a long way short of the euphoric high tide that sent values soaring prior to the GFC.

The latest pointer to well-heeled buyers putting big toes in the water has come in the last few days.

A buyer who a few weeks back paid $4.8 million for a knockdown cottage in what officially is known as Hedges Ave has had the chequebook out again.

This time the target’s been an adjoining oceanfront ‘oldie’ and the price being paid, in an off-market deal, is $5.6 million.

It appears the intention is to call in a demolition team to clear the sites so a major ‘pad’ can be built across the two 405 sqm lots.

Hedges Ave is well-known as Millionaires’ Row.

The Gold Coast buyer’s purchases are the latest illustration that Hedges Ave beachfront land prices, which sank dramatically during the GFC, have more than stabilised.

It’s only six years ago that a buyer paid $3.05 million for a five-bedroom 20-year-old house on a 405 sqm lot fronting the sand.

The latest double-banger, all up worth $10.4 million, illustrates how much price progress has been made since then but there’s a long way to go before Hedges catches up with pre-GFC boomtime values.

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A classic example is 97 Hedges Ave, the property that’s just sold for $5.6 million.

In the adrenaline-charged spell that the beachfront experienced before the GFC the property was under contract for $8.3 million but the buyer didn’t settle the deal.

Six years later it was sold for $6 million and the current seller paid $4 million for it in 2014.

The rateable value of the 405 sqm site was $4.5 million at June 2018.

The property has sold for several million dollars. Picture: Lawrence Pinder

The pre-GFC buyer splurge in the street saw prices for lots of that size, the predominant ones in the street, race past $7 million.

Former cinema operator Terry Jackman is believed to have paid the most to snare a 405 sqm lot — he outlaid $8 million in 2006 for a corner property adjoining his home.

The major land deal in Hedges Ave this year has been the purchase of a 607 sqm corner site by developer John Potter for $6.95 million.

That buy came on the heels of the sale of the Potter family home, for $12 million, to billionaire and one-time politician Clive Palmer.

Meanwhile, the nickname Millionaires’ Row has long been superseded by time.

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This humble scribe came up with the tag in the late 90s, when property agent the late Mike Deane was kicking some big goals.

The one-time stock and station agent described himself at the time as the agent to the rich and famous and his clients included showbiz entrepreneur Michael Edgley.

Today Hedges Ave deserves the title Multi-Millionaires’ Row — close to a million dollars is needed just for a deposit on some of the street’s more valuable houses.

Then, of course, if a few more billionaires join jolly Clive in the street, the tag could be upgraded to Billionaires’ Row.

The Ocean Isles apartment sold for $5m.

TONY Burnett, an hotelier whose properties include Waxy’s Irish bar in Surfers Paradise and Pimpama Tavern, has emerged as the buyer of former boatbuilder Keith Lloyd’s beachfront pad at Main Beach.

Tony and Toni Ferguson have paid $5 million for The Ocean Isles apartment, or $2.5 million less than Keith was asking in March.

It’s a water-to-water move for the couple — they sold a Paradise Waters riverfront home to a VIP among investors, beef-jerky maker Tony Quinn, for $7.975 million in January.

The property is near the Chateau tower.

A COMPANY with links to rebuffed integrated tourism resort proponent ASF is believed to be contemplating a luxury boutique hotel near the heart of Surfers Paradise.

The Paradise Development group’s hotel would go on a 506 sqm site overlooking the beach and which sits between the Chateau and Grosvenor towers.

The site’s already approved for a 17-level building in which efforts to sell apartments starting at $3.7 million, along with a $10 million penthouse, began in 2017.

Romolo Bos, pictured here with Caroline Bos.

ROMOLO Bos, whose business interests range from property investment to scaffolding and equipment hire, had a pretty serious crack at buying a 55-year-old home on the hill at Burleigh that smashed the reserve price at auction.

He was an underbidder at $5.25 million for the Short St home, which sold for $5.375 million — the reserve was $3.5 million.

The home’s above Nathan St, where Romolo’s Grocorp Group owns at least half a dozen titles.