Former politician hopes to crowdfund Tasmanian island purchases
Former Liberal MP and barrister Clem Newton-Brown is hoping to raise up to $1.5m from a crowd-funding campaign to buy more Tasmanian islands, as the COVID-19 experience boosts the popularity of regional accommodation.
Newton-Brown, once the member for Prahran, owns Picnic Island and Sawyers Bay Shacks on Flinders Island, and has started crowd-funding to raise the money to buy and develop more islands.
“Over the past decade I have been developing tourism assets on Flinders Island and Picnic Island off the Freycinet coast of Tasmania,” Newton-Brown told The Weekend Australian.
“You can’t get more wild than being on an island off Tasmania, summer or winter, it’s a totally different experience.
“The main thinking is purchasing freehold, long-term leasehold or partnerships with existing landowners such as the Aboriginal Land Council. I am not talking about building resorts with swim-up bars, it’s a raw tourism experience.”
Newton-Brown said the pandemic had given him the impetus to buy more Tasmanian assets. “I have never been busier on both my island properties and it’s just from the Tasmanian market; when the borders open that will change,” he said.
“In the COVID-19 world the winners in tourism are going to be the smaller bespoke experiences where you are offering something unusual, isolated, and opening people’s eyes to parts of the country which they never would have considered because they were too busy saving up for a holiday in New York, Bali or Greece.”
Newton-Brown said he would have up to a half-dozen sites for people to invest in. The minimum investment is $1000 and the maximum is $10,000 for retail investors with the offering being overseen by Birchal Investments closing November 5.
This article originally appeared on www.theaustralian.com.au/property.
