Real Estate: $9m-plus land sale looks set to break Gold Coast record
A VACANT Paradise Waters site sold out from under Jim Raptis five years ago, is under contract for more than $9 million in a deal that will set a Gold Coast record.
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A VACANT Paradise Waters site sold out from under developer Jim Raptis five years ago is under contract for more than $9 million, in a deal that will set a record for a Gold Coast waterfront house site.
A Chinese buyer, a first-time visitor to the Gold Coast, is purchasing the 3369sq m Paradise Waters site, subject to Foreign Investment Review Board approval.
The sellers, Chinese couple Yanlian Wu and Songming Zheng, paid mortgagee the Commonwealth Bank $6.2 million for the holding in 2011.
Tony Yan, the Mint Property principal who handled the sale, said the buyer was contemplating using the three-title site for one giant house.
The land is at the end of Commodore Drive and has a 140-metre frontage to the Nerang River.
Mr Yan would not reveal the exact price but confirmed it was more than $9 million.
He said the deal came out of the blue and by way of a call from a lawyer who was with a Chinese family spending a night in the new Rhapsody tower in Surfers Paradise.
“I was in my shorts and walking my dogs when I got the call,” Mr Yan said.
“I went and met the group, who were in a bus and took my dogs along.
“I’m not sure which person in the group was the actual buyer – the lawyer did all the talking.”
Mr Yan said the buyer’s representatives spent two months on due diligence, primarily on verifying the true value of the land, before the contract was signed.
He said the cash deal would settle in the first half of November if FIRB approval was gained.
Private Raptis company Amaranthus bought the property for $1.1 million in 1999 but lost control of it to the CBA after a 2005 funding facility allegedly was not repaid.
Mr Raptis lives in a nearby Commodore Drive riverfront mansion.
The record for a waterfront or riverfront lot on the Gold Coast is believed to lie with the $8.4 million purchase by a Chinese company last year of a 4044sq m super-lot at Sanctuary Cove.
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