Boomers compete to acquire trophy apartments on beach settings
LOS ANGELES: Baby boomers are competing to acquire trophy apartments on beach settings in resort locations.
Controversial multi-billionaire businessman Clive Palmer has forked out a hefty $18.5m purchasing a whole-floor penthouse on Queensland’s Gold Coast in one of the year’s biggest deals.
The luxury property acquisition will further bulk up Mr Palmer’s existing portfolio of residential real estate spread along the Gold Coast’s ritzy Hedges Avenue and throughout Queensland’s coastal enclaves.
The aspiring politician and Queensland businessman, who owns hundreds of residential properties principally in Queensland, has just purchased one of the upper floors of a Mermaid Beach apartment tower, fronting 272 Hedges Avenue. The whole floor penthouse offers sweeping 360 degree views of the Gold Coast city, hinterland backdrop and ocean from its 650sq m floor plan.
The vendors were an older Queensland based property investor couple wishing to downsize from the four bedroom and four bathroom penthouse which was developed by Gold Coast group Sunland in 2021, according to senior sources.
Negotiated via an off market deal by Michael Kolloshe of the eponymous Gold Coast-based real estate agency, Kolloshe, the penthouse features a gourmet kitchen and butler’s pantry.
The master bedroom has bespoke joinery, a marble ensuite plus dual dressing rooms. Three extra bedrooms have built-in robes, breathtaking views and marble ensuites, along with an executive office and a home theatre.
The penthouse has three car spaces, while the apartment manager provides concierge services, an executive lounge, resort-style pool and spa, gym, sauna, steam room, and private treatment rooms.
The rich continue to buy penthouses on the eastern seaboard and don’t appear to be worried about Labor’s about face on negative gearing including cutting the 50 per cent discount on Capital Gains Tax from July 1, 2027.
In Sydney, businessman Neville Crichton has reportedly paid around $50m for an off the plan penthouse in Fortis’s Ruby development in Sydney’s wealthy Double Bay. That deal was the largest amount paid for an apartment outside of Sydney’s CBD.
Further north, just ahead of budget week, a local entrepreneur smashed Queensland’s apartment price record, forking out $30m for an under-construction penthouse of the One Burleigh project on the Gold Coast.
Meanwhile, at the lower end of the market, real estate agency JLL said that new apartment projects may come through the shock changes to property taxes that have rocked the established home market in an improved position.
“Contrary to initial market concerns, the Federal Government’s proposed changes to negative gearing provisions are expected to benefit off-the-plan apartment sales by creating tax incentives for newly constructed dwellings,” JLL Australia residential research manager Will Silk said.
He suggested that the policy shift may redirect investor capital toward new apartment developments and away from established housing stock.
JLL said the sales market outlook had shifted considerably since early 2026. Apartment approvals have lifted nationally, with NSW up 18.6 per cent and Queensland surging 45.9 per cent in the year to March. But the agency warned that the critical gap between building approvals and actual completions persists.