Chinese billionaire grabs Surfers Paradise hotel for $65 million
An unnamed Chinese tycoon has snapped up the oceanfront International Beach Resort in Surfers Paradise for $65 million, signalling the appetite that Chinese investors have for Gold Coast property.
The billionaire reportedly has plans to build a five star hotel on the site of the 22-storey building.
The deal still need Foreign Investment Review Board approval but Roland Evans, principal of the Canford Property Group, said the buyer, who is from southern China and is in his late 40s, has big plans for the site.
“He’s been looking for a hotel opportunity on the Gold Coast for two years,” Mr Evans told the Gold Coast Bulletin. “He intends to continue running the International Beach Resort for a couple of years or so, then to demolish it and build a five-star hotel.
“He doesn’t have any property on the Gold Coast but has a few holdings in Melbourne.”
He said the deal showed that the Chinese interest in Gold Coast property was continuing.
“There’s still major demand for prime sites but ... location is the prime factor,” he said.
The International Beach Resort, which has 80 one-bedroom apartments and 40 hotel rooms, was built in the late 1960s.
It was one of the first Gold Coast buildings to top 20 storeys. Back then, it was named the Apollo.
Japanese company Koshin bought it in the 1980s, and then sold it to Singapore’s Gertrude Guok for $11.4 million in 1993.
The acquisition comes at a time of a lot of development and investment activity on the Gold Coast.
Hong Kong billionaire developer Tony Fung’s Aquis Australia last month acquired its third major Surfers Paradise development site in a year, also on Main Beach Parade.
According to the Courier Mail, he paid $23 million.
Last year, Mr Fung acquired the former International Beach Resort on the Surfers Paradise Esplanade for $55 million.
by Leon Gettler, June 1st 2016
