Take your pick of Queensland islands
They don’t come cheap, but for the right price you could secure one of three tropical islands currently on the market in Queensland.
With interest in Australian hotels and hospitality ventures soaring, the Whitsundays’ Keswick Island is the latest island floated for sale.
Located on the Great Barrier Reef, 34km north-east of Mackay, the 517ha island – of which 400ha is national park – is expected to fetch as much as $30 million.
The island is owned by Keswick Developments, which is owned by Edward Dawson-Damer, a former equerry to Queen Elizabeth, and is being sold with a 117ha development lease from the state government until 2096, along with a 25ha seabed lease for a 180-berth marina and deep water jetty.
The terms of the lease granted by the Queensland government allow for 1000 residential dwellings and a total future population 3000 people.
The island already boasts a sealed airstrip, 150 subdivided lots and basic key infrastructure such as water and fuel storage, a barge ramp, power generation units, landscaping equipment and a dry marina.
Expressions of interest close in late August, with Colliers International’s Steam Leung acting as marketing agent.
But it is not the only Whitsundays island available, with South Molle Island also on the market.
The 4.66 square-kilometre island, which is 12km east of Airlie Beach, is home to a 200-room resort and national park, and is expected to generate interest from international and Australian buyers.
Queensland’s South Molle Island is on the market.
JLL Hotels and Hospitality Group’s Peter Harper and Tate Stubbs are managing the island’s sale.
“The ability to acquire the perpetual leasehold interest in South Molle Island presents an incredible opportunity to secure one of the last large-scale island development opportunities in the Great Barrier Reef,” Harper says.
“It’s certainly the premium sale offering in this part of the world at present and we expect global investors and developers to act accordingly.”
South Molle Island is home to a 200-room resort and a national park.
The perpetual leasehold interest in South Molle Island features more than 12ha of developable beachfront land, including a frontage of more than 600m to one of the only sheltered north-facing white sand beaches in the region, and a 15ja parcel in the middle of the island, surrounded by national park.
The Whitsunday islands have been an active market in recent times with Long Island Resort, which has been owned by private investor David Kingston’s Ocean Hotels group for the past 20 years and is located south-east of Airlie Beach, also listed for sale with vacant possession earlier this year.
Meanwhile, Daydream Island Resort and Spa, which sits alongside South Molle Island, was sold last year for $30 million to China Capital Investment Group, and Lindeman Island, 39km south-east of Airlie Beach, was sold for $12 million in 2012 to the China-based White Horse Group.
