Supertower the latest to fall into receivership

THE 77-storey Soul supertower - Australia's third-tallest residential building - has fallen into the hands of receivers.

Building

THE 77-storey Soul supertower - the second-tallest man-made peak on the Gold Coast skyline - has fallen into the hands of receivers.

It is the latest victim of the tourist strip's embattled apartment market, which has led to corporate doctor being called in to several major developments in recent years.

The 288 apartments in Soul still had a price tag of no less than $1 million each despite values of Gold Coast apartment plunging by up to 40 per cent.

Only last month its developer, Juniper Group, spruiked that it had reached a sales and settlement milestone "bordering on $200 million".

But speculation had been rife for months that the $850 million development, completed earlier this year, was precariously perched because of poor sales and settlements.

Receivers from PricewaterhouseCoopers today announced they had been appointed to a string of companies associated with the developer of the 245m-high tower on the Surfers Paradise beachfront

They include Juniper PM Pty Ltd, Juniper Financier No 2 Pty Ltd, Juniper Developer No 2 Pty Ltd, Pimlico Investments Pty Ltd Juniper Property Holdings No 15 Pty Ltd and Juniper Property Holdings No 24 Pty Ltd.

But Michael Fung from PricewaterhouseCoopers said it would be "business as usual" as they finalised settlements of pre-sold apartments, marketed the remaining unsold apartments, and continued the development of the retail precinct.

"The challenges facing the real estate market in the Gold Coast area are well known and have been impacting the major developers in the area for some time," he said.

"These challenges, together with the slower than expected completion and delays in settlements on pre-sold stock meant that the receivership of this world-class development was unsurprising."

Mr Fung said many of the apartments in Soul had been pre-sold and "we will be working through the settlement process to deliver those apartments to purchasers".

He said the appointment of receivers was restricted to the Soul development only and did not affect any other properties or assets - in particular, the Sea Temple hotel operation.

Other high-profile developments on the Gold Coast that have gone into receivership include Raptis Group's Southport Central and Niecon's two-tower Oracle project at Broadbeach.

Soul is the third tallest residential building in Australia behind Q1 (323m) and Melbourne's Eureka Tower (297m).