‘It’s simply amazing’: Olympic swimmer Andrew Baildon selling riverfront mansion

FORMER Olympic swimmer Andrew Baildon and his wife Karen have put their sprawling Gold Coast property on the market.

The couple, who operates Superfish Swim Schools across Brisbane and the Gold Coast, will auction their Georgian-inspired riverfront mansion in Ashmore next month.

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Andrew Baildon, pictured, is selling his Gold Coast home. Picture: Richard Gosling

Ray White Surfers Paradise Group CEO Andrew Bell described the property as “one-of-a-kind” on a huge 5287sq m block.

“It’s simply amazing — one of the largest residential land holdings on main river with the incredible 75m frontage,” Mr Bell said.

“The home has been recently completely modernised and retained all of the amazing features such as high ceilings, panelled walls, the magnificent timber floorings, art-deco style windows and lots more.”

“I just can’t do it justice verbally so come along and do yourself a favour and have a good look at the property.”

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Unwind in the pool area.

Property records reveal the couple paid $1.65m for the house in 2010.

They briefly put it on the market in September, 2020 before pulling it off in February, 2021.

Originally built in the 1960s, the Baildons renovated the property without losing its warmth and charm.

The art deco touches were rejuvenated, including the fluted glass doors, windows, timber floors and the sprawling original Terrazzo terrace.

There is a seamless flow between the outdoors and the elegant living zones, which include a kitchen with butler’s pantry.

The lower level is now home to a temperature-controlled wine cellar nestled under an original beamed ceiling, with banquet seating and an antique 18th century French door.

Other standout features include imported, custom cabinetry in the bedrooms and bathrooms, and a 12m x 6m pool and adjoining alfresco area.

Ray White Surfers Paradise Group agents Jackson Paradise and Keegan Shaw will auction the property on September 24.

Mr Baildon represented Australia at the 1988 Olympics in Seoul and the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona.

He is also a Commonwealth Games gold medallist.

Article source: Queensland Property Investor

Buyers race for Qld property with insane motocross track

The owners of this acreage property ramped up its recreational appeal with a heart-pumping motocross track and have resold after one year for a big profit.

The 3.19ha estate at 647 Stanmore Rd, Luscombe was snapped up for $1.165m just 8 days after hitting the market.

Listed by Ray White agent Brooke McCamley, it comprised a modern raised home with three bedrooms and two bathrooms, as well as a host of amenities to suit equestrian enthusiasts, including four fenced paddocks, two stables and a night yard, plus a large arena and round yard.

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The quintessential Queensland country lifestyle was on offer here

While it was billed as “the perfect horse property”, Ms McCamley said the sellers had broadened its appeal by adding an epic motocross track to the side of the property.

“This property really had something for everyone, whether you love horse riding or motocross, it’s the perfect property for all the kids to ride their hearts out,” she said in the listing.

Property records show the home last changed hands for $950,000 in January 2022.

The new owners were upgrading from a smaller holding in Brisbane’s affluent suburb of Chandler to the rural locality in the city of Gold Coast.

Ms McCamley said the property was located a short drive away from the motorway, allowing for an easy drive to either the Brisbane CBD or the Glitter Strip.

She said listings in the area were in high demand, particularly by househunters whose previous properties were impacted by last year’s floods.

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Raked ceilings in the main living area

The 2009-built home’s features included raked ceilings through the main living area, along with a separate rumpus room and a large downstairs patio complete with a spa and firepit area.

There’s also a large garage with a workshop, and a range of fruit trees.

“The gorgeous homestead is perched high on the property to take full advantage of the spectacular scenic views and cooling summer breezes.”

Article source: Queensland Property Investor

Noosa magic: How the jewel in the Sunshine Coast’s crown sailed through a property downturn to reign over Australian real estate

It’s no secret Australians enjoy packing up the car for stretches of saltwater and sand, but property hunters are flocking to a particular coastal suburb on the south-eastern border of Queensland, and spending big money to own a piece of paradise.

While the cooler months usually herald a softer market, the unit market in Sunshine Coast’s Noosa Heads was anything but slow and steady, according to the latest Domain House Price Report.

The median unit price in Noosa Heads is $1.8 million, up a staggering 38.5 per cent in the 12 months to June.

In the last five years, that median skyrocketed by 164.7 per cent – making it the strongest-performing unit market in the nation.

Known for its stunning beaches and national park, it’s no surprise that property hunters are finding a home in Noosa Heads. But what’s driving that growth?

“Simple economics,” Jesse Stowers of Tom Offermann Real Estate says. “Supply and demand. There’s a national demand but our supply is very finite.

“Noosa is unique in that we haven’t had a lot of developments coming or being built at the moment and if they are, generally, something would have to be knocked down to make space for something new.”

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21/42 Hastings Street, Noosa Heads QLD 4567

While sea changers are very much alive and well in Noosa Heads, with its median house price of $2.225 million – up 10.3 per cent in the 12 months to June and 98.7 per cent in the last five years – property buyers, particularly investors, are setting their sights on units instead.

And they are making a sweet return on their purchases. For a unit in Noosa Heads, a tenant could expect to pay a median asking rent of $788 a week, up 13.3 per cent in the past year and 66.1 per cent in five years. The median gross rental yield was 4.49 per cent, Domain data showed.

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12/6 Quamby Place, Noosa Heads QLD 4567

“The unit market is generally geared towards rentals … if you wanted to live in Noosa, you’d certainly try and buy a house as opposed to being in a unit, which is saturated with short-term holiday rentals,” says Damien Styring of Dowling Neylan.

“COVID-19 laid out a lot of the groundwork of the market here and accelerated [Noosa Head’s] property performance … with a lot of people moving out of Melbourne and Sydney during the lockdown. But I never would’ve imagined the market to move so quickly and by so much.”

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2/16 Katharina Street, Noosa Heads QLD 4567

According to the 2016 census, Noosa Heads’ population was 4484. By the 2021 census, during the peak of the pandemic and when sea changers were making their moves to the Sunshine State, the suburb was home to 5120 people.

Despite rising interest rates, Styring says a “new level of wealth has come into town”.

“These days, a lot of the buyers we’re dealing with don’t need to borrow money – it’s all in cash,” he says. “Whereas, five years ago, it was always subject to finance.

“The amount of money that has come into the Noosa market, predominantly over the last three to four years, has been phenomenal.”

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2/29 Allambi Rise, Noosa Heads QLD 4567

Stowers adds that height restrictions and a lack of available property “puts pressure on the demand and price”. But a particular beachfront strip has driven that price further.

Hastings Street is described as the heart of Noosa Heads, hosting a number of restaurants, bars, cafes and resorts.

Apartments in the street have sold for as high as $16.1 million for a four-bedroom, 412-square-metre unit, while a one-bedroom, 69-square-metre unit sold for $1.32 million recently.

“There are about 240 units on the beachfront of that street,” Stowers says. “When you compare it to the beachfront developments in the Gold Coast, there are plenty of towers and apartments there, but on Hastings Street, there are not that many.

“And it’s tightly held, so when there is a property that comes to market, it’s interesting to see how fast things get snapped up.”

Article source: Queensland Property Investor

Brisbane Rates Hike Threatens Build-to-Rent and PBSA Future

A property industry body has slammed the Brisbane City Council over “drastic rates increases” for student accommodation and build-to-rent properties.

In its latest Budget the Brisbane City Council introduced new rating tools for purpose-built student accommodation and build-to-rent proeprties as part of a focus on the burgeoning sectors.

Property Council Queensland executive director Jen Williams said some property owners had been slugged rates increases of more than 200 per cent.

Williams said the two sectors provided some of the highest-density housing in Brisbane, supporting supply and affordability issues in Brisbane. 

“Brisbane City Council has previously acknowledged the importance of purpose-built rental housing in addressing the housing crisis,” she said.

“In the same Budget that introduced these drastic rates increases, Council announced an incentive package to stimulate the delivery of new build-to-rent projects.

“Streamlining planning processes on the one hand yet ramping up ongoing operating costs on the other hand, sends a mixed message to investors and ultimately impacts the level of rent being paid by tenants.”

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▲ Student accommodation offers high-density living in key inner-city locations, including Scape’s Toowong property near to the University of Queensland.

Brisbane is home to about 16,000 students living in purpose-built student accommodation while a number of build-to-rent projects are now under construction.

Property Council student accommodation president Anouk Darling described the rate hikes as “absolutely unfathomable”.

Brisbane has some of the lowest vacancy rates in Australia in student beds.

A report released late last year by the Student Accommodation Council—an arm of the property council—revealed many Australian cities were already at capacity for student accommodation beds, with Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide expecting zero vacancy rates in 2023.

Cedar Pacific is spearheading one of the state government’s pilot project sites, while Frasers Property is developing its Brunswick Street build-to-rent, Mirvac’s Newstead is under way, and Lendlease recently broke ground on its build-to-rent community near the showgrounds.

There are plans for other build-to-rent projects in the Olympic Games Gabba precinct and the athletes village area at Hamilton.

The city opened its doors to the growing asset class but concern is growing that this latest move could take some of the heat out of the market.

A build-to-rent developer who did not wish to be named told The Urban Developer that developers and operators were likely to pass on the additional costs to end users.

“Operating costs are a big consideration in the long-term viability of build-to-rent projects,” he said.

“Build-to-rent owners hold these assets for up to 20 years and this increase in costs amplified over that time would be heavily scrutinised.”

The Brisbane City Council was contacted for comment.

Article source: Queensland Property Investor

‘We will giving it the love it hasn’t had’: Hamell Retail founders snap up shopping centre

Hamell Retail founders and Noosa holidaymakers Daniel and Kylee Burke have snapped up Tewantin’s Poinciana Place Shopping Centre for $17.5 million, with makeover plans already underway.

The fully leased 3104sqm shopping centre is anchored by Woolworths, representing 77 per cent of the gross lettable area (GLA) and 57 per cent of income. The centre comprises an additional nine retail tenants.

The property at 86 Poinciana Avenue was developed by the Stockwell Group in 2006 and, according to CoreLogic RP data, was sold to a Melbourne investor in 2017 for $17.3 million. Before that, the property was last traded in 2013 for $12 million.

The Burkes are known for their value-add strategies with retail property in the South-East Queensland markets, including the recently completed $20m expansion and repositioning of the Woolworths-anchored Camp Hill Marketplace.

“We are excited. I always tend to take notice of that centre whenever we’re up there,” Mr Burke said.

“We have a holiday house at Noosa, but that’s not the real reason we bought it.

“I just like the size of it and the fact that it was a main street position and not just a standalone out in the suburbs. That was attractive to me.

“I think the demographic is changing enormously up there – that was another reason we liked it. Tewantin is also a really nice and pretty little town.”

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Poinciana Place Shopping Centre at Tewantin. Picture: Google Maps

With the former owners and centre managers living in Melbourne, Mr Burke said the existing tenants would benefit from now having more “hands on” owners.

“You can see when you look at the centre that the owners are just absentees,” he said.

“There’s been no real contact and no support for them.

“There’s little bits and pieces that need to be done on centres like that all the time, so we will be giving it the love it hasn’t had. That’s also been reflected in the sale price.”

He said the newest acquisition gave the opportunity to largely replicate the strategy used in driving the success of Camp Hill Marketplace.

“The plan over the next few years is to do a similar thing at Poinciana Place, which will be a shuffle of tenancies and refurbishments,” he said.

“You start refurbishing and brightening it up and it will certainly help the businesses.

“We are looking to expand into more similar-sized shopping centres that are either Woolworths or Coles-based in the future. They are attractive tenants.

“In the next few years, that Woolworths will really pick up its turnover and with some good supported and supporting tenants, it will be great centre and a good thing for Tewantin.”

While they have recently appointed Renegade Design Studio for the renovations, he said they would not be doing anything “major” to the centre right away.

“We’re going to pull out all the timber strips off the front and get it re-painted and re-landscaped and all those sorts of things first,” he said.

“It will be a slow rise to the top.

“It will depend on how far the refurb goes as to whether we will be required to lodge a DA or not.”

He said they would not be expanding the centre at this point unless they were to acquire some adjoining property.

“None of the adjoining properties are for sale at the moment that I’m aware of, but they could be over time,” he said.

“Over a period of time at Camp Hill, we managed to buy five or six other properties and that’s how we did our expansions there.

“So who knows, some people might want to sell out over the next few years and maybe not, so watch this space.”

CBRE’s Joe Tynan, Michael Hedger and Louisa Blennerhassett conducted the on-market expression of interest campaign, with Vinci Carbone’s Frank Vinci as transaction adviser.

“The sale achieved a 5.49 per cent yield, which represents a very strong result in light of the market volatility, short WALE (weighted average lease expiry) and requirement for immediate cap ex (capital expenditure),” Mr Tynan said.

“It was a very competitive EOI process. We received 160 inquiries resulting in eight formal bids. In the final round there were three bids around the same price with the top party selected on their terms and capacity to complete in a short timeframe.

“Investors were attracted to Woolworths, which is currently generating sales 14 per cent above the Urbis average and paying percentage rent. Woolworths is further supported by a national tenancy profile that represents 83 per cent of the gross passing income.”

Mr Hedger said pricing for neighbourhood shopping centres appeared to be holding up better than other asset classes in the current higher interest rate environment.

“The key reason is the smaller transaction size, which is attractive to private investors who may not require any debt,” he said.

“Also, supermarkets have been resilient with sales generally increasing with inflation, which drives income for these assets.”

Article source: Queensland Property Investor

Cornerstone Taps Queensland Treechange with Health Hub

The green shoots of new development are emerging rapidly among the pineapple and macadamia farms surrounding the small towns dotted throughout the Glass House Mountains region north of Brisbane.

Sprawling rural properties are making way for new residential subdivisions and housing estates as development has ramped up off the back of the pandemic-induced treechange.

Capitalising on the surge in growth, Cornerstone Group has recently turned dirt on an $18-million healthcare project at Beerwah in the Sunshine Coast hinterland.

To be known as the Beerwah Health Hub, it will comprise 4000sq m for healthcare services—including general practice, allied health, dental, optometry and radiology—as well as a childcare centre.

It is the diversified healthcare real estate fund’s sixth healthcare development.

The other developments include Chermside Health Hub, North Lakes Specialist Medical Centre and Moreton Health Hub in Queensland as well as Canberra Specialist Medical Centre in ACT and Nepean Health Hub in Penrith west of Sydney.

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▲ Render of Cornerstone’s $18-million Beerwah Health Hub under construction in the Sunshine Coast hinterland.

Cornerstone Group director Simon Heazlewood said he was excited to break ground on the Beerwah Health Hub is an area that “has been underserviced in regards to quality primary healthcare”.

“Beerwah is strategically located between north Brisbane and the Sunshine Coast in an area where we are seeing tremendous growth,” he said.

“Our new health hub is primed to bring high-quality services to the Beerwah community, Glass House Mountains, Landsborough and other surrounding hinterland towns, as well as the emerging residential communities of Beerwah East, Aura and Caloundra South.”

About 70 per cent of the lettable space in the under-construction facility has been pre-committed, including the 105-place, 720sq m childcare centre on the first floor.

Construction of the Beerwah Health Hub is expected to be complete by the end of the year. Another healthcare project on Bribie Island is due to begin in coming months.

Article source: Queensland Property Investor

Tower, Townhouse Mix Filed for Brisbane’s Fortitude Valley

Plans have been filed for an infill residential development with a 15-storey slender tower sleeved behind nine townhouses on the fringe of inner-city Brisbane’s Fortitude Valley.

The proposal is earmarked for 3059sq m site spanning nine lots on the corner of Hynes, Light and Knapp streets.

Overall, it would comprise 23 residences—including 14 “penthouse-style” whole-floor, three-bedroom apartments—and 90sq m of office space.

The application has been lodged with the Brisbane City Council by Ace Property Holdings, which has held the site for more than 30 years.

The company is linked to Brisbane businessman John Homewood, who heads up medical waste management specialist Ace Waste and a number of property enterprises.

The Fortitude Valley site is currently occupied by three pre-war homes, a pre-1911 residence and two commercial buildings.

Under the plans, the pre-1911 building would be retained, raised and renovated to provide a boutique office space and two-bedroom home.

According to a planning report supporting the application, the design of the proposal “focuses on delivering a residential product that is unique to Fortitude Valley”.

“The design focuses on high-end luxury apartments and townhouses that will broadly appeal to professionals, families, downsizers and retirees seeking to age in place,” it said.

The three to four-storey townhouses with 300sq m of floor space would include private courtyards and/or rooftop terraces, multi-purpose rooms ideal for home-based businesses and some would offer three-car garages.

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▲ A render of the proposed development earmarked for the 3059sq m site on the fringe of Fortitude Valley.

Apartments in the planned tower would include access to a rooftop garden with a mix of indoor and outdoor communal open space, barbecue facilities and seating areas with CBD skyline views.

“In seeking to deliver a product that is unique to Fortitude Valley and Brisbane, the design provides one apartment per floor level which is suited to the narrow and slender built form of tower component,” the report said.

“This type of building configuration is not frequently seen in Fortitude Valley, however, the applicant is committed to delivering a unique residential product by providing ‘penthouse-style’ apartments on all levels of the residential tower.”

The small development footprint of the residential tower would allow greater physical separation between development and existing commercial developments on adjoining sites, it said.

The report also noted the proposed tower and previously approved four-storey mixed-use building on Knapp Street would be “sleeved behind the low-rise buildings to transition in height and scale from Wickham Street towards the residential area to the west”.

Difficulty with on-street car parking availability in the area also has been recognised, with the provision of 57 carparking spaces—15 more than are required by the planning scheme.

Article source: Queensland Property Investor