Gold Coast homes, commercial properties worth $4.6m bequeathed to charities in March

Ask Gold Coasters whether they’d give away their homes free during the hottest property market in living memory and the answer is likely to be “over my dead body”.

Ask Gold Coasters whether they’d give away their homes free during the hottest property market in living memory and the answer is likely to be “over my dead body”.

But that’s exactly the approach taken by three people last month, who separately bequeathed their properties, together worth more than $4.6m, to charity.

Property records show Greenpeace Australia, the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and the Rotary Club of Mermaid Beach were beneficiaries of the settlements of properties at Bundall, Chevron Island and Burleigh Waters.

123 Campbell St, Sorrento, sold for $1.835m.

A wish to help the physically disabled on the Gold Coast by long-time Rotarian and war veteran Les Brightwell came true 38 years after his death when his Sorrento house was auctioned in January.

The three-bedroom waterfront home at 123 Campbell St, worth around $150,000 when he bought it half a century ago, sold under the hammer for $1.835m in a sale that settled on March 16.

Mr Brightwell, who was a long-time member of the Mermaid Beach Rotary Club, passed away from cancer in 1983, gifting the home to the club in his will.

He asked that the modest brick home, on 751 sqm, be sold once it was no longer needed by his wife Pauline, who passed away at the age of 95 in 2020.

Income from the property was designated to help those who are physically disabled in the local community because Mr Brightwell’s first wife was an amputee, losing her leg following a cancer diagnosis.

In southern Gold Coast hotspot Burleigh Waters, RSPCA Qld reaped $1.07m in the auction of 7 Magpie Pl, bought by the previous owner for $174,000 in 1999.

The three-bedroom brick home, a 15-minute flat bike ride to Burleigh Beach, is on 426 sqm and settled to its new owner on March 14.

7 Magpie Ct, Burleigh Waters, sold for $1.07m.

RSPCA Qld said the home’s donor had wished to remain anonymous, but they were a long-term supporter of the organisation.

“A quarter of our funding comes from bequests,” a spokesman said.

“Every year we see over 47,000 animals turn to the RSPCA for help in Queensland.

“Leaving a bequest to the RSPCA helps us fund our inspectorate, wildlife and animal rescue units on the Gold Coast and help our cats in our Op Shops find loving new homes.”

Another posthumously-generous property owner left a money-making commercial property to Greenpeace Australia.

The property at 62 Thomas Dr on Chevron Island has three tenancies and fronts two streets in the bustling pocket of Surfers Paradise.

The 420 sqm property, which was earning $177,000 a year in rent, settled to its new owner V Action Investments for $1.71m on March 9.

The seller of the property, who is not identified in property records, purchased it 20 years earlier for $1.6m.

Greenpeace did not respond to the Bulletin’s questions.

V Action is majority owned by two Hong-Kong-based companies and is directed by Clear Island Waters resident William Lai.