PROJECT funder ANZ, the blue bank, appears to have a severe case of Hilton Surfers Paradise hiccups.
A total of 101 buyers are being chased in court after failing to settle on their apartment purchases in the 410-unit project.
Among those targeted is a Taiwanese businessman who in May put his Sanctuary Cove house on the market priced at $16 million.
His case illustrates a dramatic fall in values in the Hilton development’s two towers.
Court documents filed in May show James Tsai put a Hilton apartment under contract for $1.395 million in 2008.
The documents list the present market value of the apartment as $830,000.
A high number of the court actions are against offshore buyers in the Hilton, mostly from China and elsewhere in Asia.
The number apparently could have been much higher had the ANZ not been willing to renegotiate with buyers who had what could loosely be called “extenuating circumstances”.
The court actions are being taken through companies Elan Boulevard, in the case of the Hilton’s Boulevard tower, and Orchid Avenue, in respect of the Orchid tower.
In the Tsai action, Orchid Avenue is seeking to keep the $139,500 deposit, along with a deposit on a $35,500 furniture contract.
It also is seeking damages of $425,000 in relation to the apartment contract, being the $565,000 difference between the contract price and the market value, less the deposit.
Damages of $35,257 are sought over the furniture contract.
Buyers also face claims for interest which, in the Tsai case, is at 15 per cent and running at nearly $590 a day.
The Hilton’s trouble started when the Raptis Group landed in financial strife and it was taken over in 2009 by the ANZ and Brookfield Multiplex.
