Gold Coast Property Sold At Huge Discount

Source : The Business Times, January 29, 2009

(MELBOURNE) A beachfront property on the Gold Coast sold at the weekend for A$5.5 million (S$5.51 million) less than what was offered for it six months ago.

The 963 square metre property on Main Beach Parade, just north of Surfers Paradise, sold for more than A$9 million at an auction where no reserve price was set, the Australian Associated Press reported.

The owners, offshore investors Maxwell and Cleo Conrad, rejected an offer of A$14.5 million for the property last July when it was first put on the block. The Conrads paid A$13.5 million for the property in June 2006.

An independent valuation before the July auction had estimated the value of the property at A$17 million.

The double corner block has 180-degree ocean views, 21m of beachfront and a 1930s renovated beach house.

The buyer, who asked to remain anonymous, put in the winning bid of A$9.01 million by telephone.

The auction had been billed as a 'once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to buy one of the best beachfront blocks on the Gold Coast'.

Ray White Broadbeach real estate agent Michael Kellosche said upmarket properties were selling at rock-bottom prices on the Gold Coast as the wealth of sellers and buyers shrank in this difficult economic times. However, he believed the market had bottomed out, and the first quarter of this year would see housing prices going up again. -- Bernama