Gold Coast’s $1.4bn Jewel development did not sell any apartments in 2021 despite boom

The Gold Coast property market is heaving, with demand outstripping supply, prices rising and rentals beyond scarce. So why are these landmark towers still empty?

Not a single apartment was sold at the $1.4bn Jewel development in 2021, with just a handful of residents rattling around the mammoth beachfront buildings.

And there are no signs of any marketing for more than 200 empty luxury units.

The Gold Coast property market is heaving with record high prices and some suburbs experiencing more than a 35 per cent spike, but as few as 12 apartments – totalling $20m – have settled in the tower which sits on the beach at southern Surfers Paradise.

‘WE’RE NOT IN NEW YORK’: JEWEL APARTMENTS OVERPRICED

The last settlement occurred in October 2020, with the bulk of the sales struck in 2016.

Despite the dormancy a spokesman for the owner has said they are in “no hurry” to sell.

Supertowers Jewel lay idle. Picture: Glenn Hampson

Property records indicate those who have bought apartments in Jewel are in tower one of the project.

Jewel has 521 units across its three towers, 339 of which will form part of the Langham-operated hotel and residences.

A company ultimately held by Jewel owner AW Holdings is still listed as owner of 221 properties at the address.

Despite the two unsold residential towers, there has been progress in Jewel’s tallest building, which houses the Langham Hotel and Residences and is set to launch this year after several delays.

Langham will operate the 169 rooms and suites between the third and 20th floors of the 49-storey central tower and will also manage 170 serviced apartments between the 22nd and top floor.

AW Holdings business manager Bryan Ge said the company was “not in a hurry” to sell the residential apartments in the other towers, adding that more information would be available in coming weeks.

Mr Ge said the imminent launch of the Langham Hotel – set to include a luxury Chuan day spa and Michelin-starred Cantonese restaurant T’ang Court – would add value to the marketing campaign for the residential towers.

“We are finalising our plans, we are not in a hurry to sell, as the hotel opens it will have a lot of benefits, a lot of amenities and facilities will be ready on the site,” he said.

“That will benefit the residential and we’re still finalising the best way to market the product.”

Valued at more than $1 billion, Jewel was billed as the Gold Coast’s ticket out of the global financial crisis (GFC), which had left the development industry on its knees. Picture: Luke Marsden

An apartment in the mammoth and mysterious Jewel development popped up for rent online in 2021, revealing the inside of the gleaming towers for the first time. Photos: ReMax

Jewel’s owner, AW Holdings, is one of many in a web of ownership since Wanda Group sold out in 2018, with some strands connected to Chinese property behemoth Evergrande.

Evergrande last year defaulted on $400bn in debts, sending shivers throughout the world economy.

The company’s powerful creditors are urging it to sell assets, however it is widely reported most of them will be left significantly out of pocket.

COMPLETE HISTORY OF JEWEL DEVELOPMENT

Shares in AW Holdings are majority held by elusive China-born Sydneysider Bo Zhang, through two other companies.

Other shareholders include 39-year-old Auckland resident Weimin Wang, who is also sole director and shareholder of the Evergrande Agri-Husbandry Group (New Zealand).

Mr Wang is also a director of New Zealand company GMP Limited, which controls the Cowala Dairy Company – formerly known as the Evergrande Cowala Dairy Company.

Evergrande Center building in Shanghai.

When the owners are ready to sell, buyers will be waiting.

Chris Jones, managing director of Republik Property Partners, said low interest rates and Covid-swollen demand had delivered the Gold Coast the best property market of “a generation”.

Mr Jones said while developers had focused on smaller boutique projects in their off-the-plan efforts in recent years, soaring demand would mean the return of apartment supertowers to the property mix.

“There have been very few big apartment buildings go up, other than Meriton’s Ocean project, which is sold out now,” he said.

“There’s going to be a big surge of supertower apartments.”

Picture: Instagram/@reillywardrope

The view from the landmark towers. Photos: ReMax

Mr Jones said he’d handled the sale of five major development sites, whose owners had plans for more than 2000 apartments in the past few months alone.

“I believe that this is the best market for a generation, possibly the best market the Gold Coast has ever had.”