Hamilton Island’s prestige mansions up for grabs

Hamilton Island’s most expensive prestige mansions are on the market, likely to draw cashed-up east-coasters and overseas buyers.

The views from 1 Plum Pudding Close, Hamilton Island, up for sale for $9m-plus.

If you have to ask the price you probably can’t afford one, but some of Hamilton Island’s most expensive prestige mansions are on the market with a plethora of cashed-up east-coasters, Euro­peans and North Americans – and even some New Zealanders – ­expected to show interest.

Holiday rents are rising and occupancies are at their highest levels in living memory since borders reopened, according to Wayne Singleton, a director of Queensland Sotheby’s International Realty, who is marketing several big-ticket mansions across the island.

“There are signature homes on the market at the moment – ­people all have different reasons for selling,” says Singleton, who has been selling property on the ­island off Queensland’s Airlie Beach for 20 years.

Singleton says the Oatley family-owned holiday island’s mansions and apartments appeal to a range of buyers and have not suffered because of the lack of Chinese purchasers – a phenomenon that has recently dogged Sydney and Melbourne’s prestige residential markets.

“We always had Chinese looking at Hamilton, the Australian Chinese bought a couple of properties, (but) it’s not really a market for us. You tend to find ­Europeans and Americans as well as the New Zealanders are the main overseas buyers.”

Trisara Gardens fronting 1 Plum Pudding Close is being offered to the market by Sydney-based property developer Peter Brennan and his partner Michael Lynch for the first time in 15 years.

Overlooking the Coral Sea, the four-bedroom and three-bathroom mansion blends contemporary design with Asian influences and luxury coastal interiors. Brennan and Lynch reckon it is time to explore other experiences both in Australia and overseas and have a $9m-plus asking price on the property.

Brennan reckons it would be difficult to replicate such a luxury villa, given the lack of tradespeople and soaring building costs in today’s market.

Singleton, who is marketing the property built on a 1900sq m site, says the house, replete with a 23m lap pool, could easily rent out for $3000-$4000 a night as holiday rentals are skyrocketing, adding that the Hamilton Island market is pretty strong at present.

“We have an unconditional contract on a house just footsteps from the Qualia resort last week with a buyer paying the third-highest price ever for a house on the island,” he said.

The house, known as Bluestone, sold through Singleton for about $7.5m to a Gold Coast development executive with diversified interests. The vendor of the property, which was not a waterfront property and does not have panoramic island views, was Canadian.

Singleton says other sales on the island this year include two pavilion penthouses that sold for more than $8m.

Apart from this significant sale, holiday rentals across the island are surging and that could be behind the spate of high price listings.

One of Hamilton Island’s most expensive homes, called The Woodshed, is on the market with an asking price of $10m.

Positioned on a 4000sq m-plus site, the three-bedroom and three-bathroom house has panoramic views across the island and is being offered to the market by a Brisbane-based executive through Singleton.

Another top Hamilton Island mansion is Tradewinds, which recently hit the listings with a $9m asking price through PRD agent Andy Camm.

Built in 2001, the property fronts Hamilton Island’s Great Northern Highway and is being offloaded by South Australian entrepreneur Peter Teakle.

The average sale price on Hamilton Island is $1.1m, which buys a two-bedroom and two-bathroom apartment that will yield a 5 per cent return, he says.

Singleton says that, before Covid-19, holiday occupancies ranged from 70-75 per cent annually.

“Since borders reopened last December we are now talking 85-90 per cent occupancy across the island. It is going gang busters and rental prices are going up,” Singleton says.

“Basically you can get $500-$600 a night for a two-bedroom apartment and that is all year around – not just in the high ­season.”