AUSTRALIAN investors have been behind a sales surge in the $850 million Soul super tower in Surfers Paradise.
A total of 77 apartments worth $115 million have been sold in the tower since November.
The highest-priced recent sale was the $4.6 million purchase of a three-bedroom apartment on the 66th level by a mainland Chinese buyer with family in Australia.
In a two-month period alone, March and April, property records show the sale of 11 apartments in the 77-storey tower settled for a total of $14.36 million.
Marketing agent Erle Cramer, of Sydney’s Cramer Property, said that a mix of local and interstate investors constituted about 75 per cent of the buyers.
“We have found far more Gold Coasters buying apartments to live in than we expected,” he said.
“Interestingly, quite a few of the local buyers are doctors and medical professionals from across southeast Queensland.
“Locals have realised that they won’t be able to buy this type of property in an iconic beachfront location again.”
Mr Cramer said the tower had also proved attractive to Australia-based Asian buyers and overseas buyers after a secure investment.
“They are using it as a means of asset protection,” he said.
“They want to invest in a stable economy and they see the Soul development as a trophy asset which will give them long-term capital growth.
“While southern investors in many cases see the Gold Coast as just a holiday location, offshore buyers recognise it as a beachfront destination that enjoys worldwide recognition.”
Mr Cramer said that while a large number of offshore buyers had been Asian investors, the sales had come from a broad range of overseas markets.
“We have recently sold apartments to European, African and Russian buyers,” Mr Cramer said. “The interesting thing is that many of the offshore buyers were attracted to the building because they already have a connection to Australia.
“Many of them have children attending university on the Gold Coast or they have a business that is in Australia.
“The Soul tower and the Gold Coast have really resonated with offshore buyers as a secure long-term investment proposition.”
The sales follow the relaunch of the beachfront tower to the market after receivers from PricewaterhouseCoopers took control of the Juniper project when banks called in the debt last October.
