Action hots up in Queensland island market
The hype surrounding the relaunch of several high-profile Queensland islands early next year is expected to underpin the marketing of Long Island, which has a price expectation of about $20 million.
CBRE agent Wayne Bunz says he has recently sold a number of properties in Airlie Beach with good results, while Hamilton Island’s hotels and villas continue to perform strongly with solid bookings.
CBRE has also received firm offers for the Crowne Plaza Gold Coast hotel, which is being offered by a Singaporean family. It is expected to sell for $100 million based on the response to an expression of interest campaign, which closed on Thursday.
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Bunz says he will wait until the first quarter of next year to offer Long Island, which is owned by Sydney investor David Kingston, to the market given the multimillion dollars worth of publicity expected to be generated from the relaunch of Hayman Island and Daydream Island.
Long Island is the closest island in the Whitsunday Group to the mainland, being just 1km off the coast.
Hayman’s owner, Malaysian group Mulpha, is spending more than $100 million revamping the island, which it bought in 2004. Mulpha lost its operator One&Only but has since signed Britian’s InterContinental Hotel Group to manage the cyclone-affected resort, which is expected to re-open next year. It will also include four opulent residential villas priced at about $10 million each, with the villas to be offered for sale.
Hayman Island will be given a $100 million makeover. Picture: Hayman.com.au.
Mulpha Australia chief executive Greg Shaw says Hayman Island is expected to open towards the end of April or early May, adding that generally the building program has been tracking well.
Similarly, Daydream Island’s owner, the Shanghai-based China Capital Investment Group, is spending $100 million fixing the cyclone-ravaged Whitsunday resort. It is also expected to re-open soon.
Despite rumours Dunk Island, off the North Queensland coast, has found a buyer, this was denied by its owner, Linc Energy founder Peter Bond.
Bond told The Australian there was no deal in the wings. “I get Asian groups ringing me every day but there’s no offer,” he says.
Bond bought the devastated Dunk Island resort seven years ago for $7.5 million and claims to have spent $27 million fixing it up, but it still requires significant renovation.
Meanwhile, the Oatley family, owners of Hamilton Island, are planning a new $13 million three-year redevelopment of their Palm Terrace Hotel into an 84-room four-star property.
“The redevelopment of the Palm Terrace hotel will assist Hamilton Island with meeting increased demand from the domestic market,” a spokeswoman for Hamilton Island Enterprises said in August.
This article originally appeared on www.theaustralian.com.au/property.
