Gold Coast and Soul

Herron Todd White says that the Gold Coast apartment market is still in decline.

It will be interesting to see how many of the Soul apartments actual settle.  Some photos of Jupiter's Soul -- the place looks bare and barren.

Call to build "pure hotels"

The AFR on Wednesday had a story quoting Simon Cooper from Marriott Hotels, saying that the Gold Coast needed more pure hotels and less strata titled apartment or condo style serviced apartment buildings.

"Building a condo is all about a high ratio of units to small public space and without that space you don't get the big groups of tourists.  ... they don't provide the benefits brought by the meetings and convention marketing, including the food and beverage offerings."

Take note of this warning if you intend to buy, rent, live or stay in an Oaks building in Brisbane.  It is not a hotel -- it is just a cheaply built apartment complex without hotel facilities, but being misleadingly marketed and sold as a hotel.  Not good for residents.  Not good for people thinking that they are booking a hotel.

Buying Off The Plan

If you are buying an apartment off the plan in Queensland, whether in Brisbane or on the coast, you want to make sure that you buy the right apartment for you, at the right price.  At present, there are some great off the plan developments at reasonable prices, and there are others that are not so good or are overpriced. Why buying off the plan, get the right advice first.  Buy the ebook from Amazon Buying An Apartment Off The Plan in Queensland - A Guide For Successful Buying.

Miserable Gold Coast

SURGING body corporate fees have combined with price volatility in the wake of receiverships to continue the Gold Coast's ''miserable'' run of highrise unit sales this year. The Midwood Report yesterday revealed 49 unconditional sales of highrise apartments were recorded in the three months to the end of August.

This was down from 51 sales three months earlier and compared with 74 a year ago. 

Report author Bill Morris said ''escalating'' body corporate fees were among the factors taking their toll on apartment sales on the Gold Coast as fees and apartment values headed in opposite directions.  Mr Morris said the issue was a state-wide problem that was hurting returns for investors. ''Accordingly, the investment market has deteriorated quite dramatically,'' he said.

Mr Morris said the problem was more acute in older buildings but the failure of bodies corporate to allocate enough in sinking funds to meet maintenance issues was swaying potential buyers away from apartments generally.

 He said the spate of receiverships in the Gold Coast highrise market, along with a tough stance taken by valuers, also had pushed potential buyers to the sidelines.

''Unconditional sales volumes of new apartments have continued to be miserable for the region since the beginning of 2010, averaging only 57 sales a quarter,'' Mr Morris wrote in the latest Midwood Report. The level of available highrise stock also dropped, with 618 new apartments remaining for sale the lowest in nine years.

 Mr Morris said using the sales average of the past two years, the Coast still had 30 months' supply of highrise apartments. The picture for medium and low-rise apartments was even worse, with 24 and six unconditional sales recorded respectively in the three months to the end of August.

''This is a dismal result given that there are 611 new apartments currently for sale in medium-rise projects and 159 new apartments in low-rise projects,'' Mr Morris wrote. He said the State Government's $10,000 stimulus for new homebuyers could see a rise in sales over the remainder of the year.

Gold Coast Bulletin

Gold Coast Settlements Off the Plan

The Hilton and Soul (Sea Temple) apartment complexes at Surfers Paradise on the Gold Coast have many off the plan apartment sales that are to settle now.  It seems that settlements are taking a long time, and that about 25% of the people who signed contracts are unable or unwilling to settle.  See The Australian.

Settlements Start At Soul

ANYONE who thinks Soul is heading for receivership because buyers won't settle will be "sadly disillusioned", veteran developer Graeme Juniper says.
The $850 million Surfers Paradise project has been 11 years in the making and Mr Juniper plans to see it through to the end.
"We have the complete support of our financiers and we are with this journey all the way through," the co-managing director of Juniper Group said.  "We will be delivering this building and Juniper will be there -- it's that simple."
Settlements of the first stage of the apartment project began on Tuesday, a process expected to take months to complete.

The family-owned Juniper Group has contracts on 173 apartments in the first stage, but Mr Juniper could not disclose how many had settled.

He confirmed Juniper Group was still finding buyers despite the dire Gold Coast apartment market and that he had secured an unconditional 30-day contract for an apartment yesterday.

See Gold Coast Bulliten

I am not sure why settlement will take months.  Usually, all settlements (even for a large building) are done in less than a week.

Gold Coast High Rise

The headline of an article on page 21 of the Weekend Australian Financial Review this weekend is "Gold Coast high rise gets a nose bleed."

The article reports that more than $1 billion of apartments purchased at the top of the market are due to settle soon in The Oracle and Juniper's Soul developments.

Lawyers are apparently circling to try to get buyers out of contracts.  For example, it is said that Nyst Lawyers believe buyers can get out of their Soul contracts because the Soul development is now being managed by Mirvac under the Sea Temple brand.  What a crazy argument.  The buyers want to get out of the contracts because the contract price that they promised to pay is now too much.  The buyers took a risk, and lost out.  You have to be very careful when buying off the plan.

The AFR reports that prices in Soul are down about 17%, based on one resale of a 23rd floor three bedroom apartment, 161 sqm, that sold off the plan for $1.8 million and resold in February this year for $1.5 million.

Soul to be branded as Sea Temple

The Juniper Soul building on the Gold Coast will be managed by Mirvac under the Sea Temple brand. With settlements due very soon, it will be interesting to see how many actually settle. Or will we have another Oracle problem? There are already dark shadows and issues about soul food. Even the development debt is for sale.

HTW Market Update

If you purchase a flooded property, you may find yourself paying 5% to 20% discount on what similar but non flooded properties are selling for in the same suburb and without a dramatic discount in rent. ...

That said, there are some suburbs that were tarnished by the flood that offer excellent value for non-flooded stock due to the overall lack of buyer confidence. For example, st Lucia has a ready source of student renters, is close to the CbD and enjoys good local services, but its riverfront areas copped a hiding in January. As a result, the dry property (and there is plenty) has also had a downturn. not too long ago, one of our valuers had a look at a two- bedroom, three-level townhouse that sold for $400,000 and will easily see $430 per week in rent. A 5.5% gross return in this location is a very nice earner indeed. ...

General market conditions across the Gold Coast are very tight. only those properties where the vendor is willing to meet the market are selling. there is generally an oversupply of similar properties listed for sale. Feedback from locals within the property industry indicate that the market may not yet have bottomed out which is concerning potential buyers. Our opinion is that we are bumping along the bottom similar to the late 1990’s and that properties will sell within a wider value range depending on the circumstances of the vendor.<
Source: HTW Report

Oracle Litigations

There are a number of litigations against people who signed off the plan contracts to purchase apartments in The Oracle development at Broadbeach, and who failed to settle once the building was complete. The developer is now suing the purchasers for breach of contract. One of the trials is partially complete. Some examples:

• South Sky Investments v Prins
• South Sky Investments v Groves & Gough
• South Sky Investments v Ryan

Oracle Broadbeach

A new marketing campaign has been launched by the receivers of The Oracle development at Broadbeach. Take a closer look.

State of the Market

Herron Todd White, a firm of independent property valuers, publishes a monthly report, called Month in Review. The most recent report includes the following information about the Queensland apartment market.

Volume of unit sales:

Brisbane: steady

Gold Coast: declining significantly

Sunshine Coast: declining

Stage of market:

Brisbane: bottom of the market

Gold Coast: declining market

Sunshine Coast: bottom of the market

Demand for new units:

Brisbane: fair

Gold Coast: very soft

Sunshine Coast: soft

Sounds like it may be a good time to buy an apartment in Brisbane, but definitely not the time to buy on the Gold Coast.

Soul and Mirvac and Oracle and Hilton

LISTED property trust Mirvac Group will operate a luxury hotel at Juniper Group's Soul apartment complex on the Gold Coast.

It is understood Juniper had been speaking to potential operators about incorporating a hotel/resort in the development which had originally been planned as purely top-end apartments.

Juniper and Mirvac are close to finalising an agreement, industry sources say.

Apartment values on the Gold Coast have fallen by up to 50 per cent due to oversupply of projects, many of which were started before the global financial crisis.

The resort in the Soul complex will compete with Mantra's five-star Peppers Hotel at the newly- built $700 million Oracle Broadbeach tower and also the Hilton Surfers Paradise Hotel and Residences, which was part of a development launched by failed Gold Coast developer Jim Raptis.

There is a total of 20,000 hotel rooms on the Gold Coast.

The Hilton hotel is on the market with price expectations of more than $60m on behalf of receivers acting for ANZ.

Oracle was also placed in voluntary receivership in December by Michael Nikiforides, a director of South Sky Investments, a Niecon-related company.

It was also suggested Mirvac briefly looked at takeover target Oaks Hotels and Resorts, for which Thai-based conglomerate Minor International is now a majority shareholder.

Mirvac was not available for comment yesterday.

It is understood that at least 200 apartments in the Juniper Group's Soul apartment project at Surfers Paradise are due to settle in stages from July.

Industry sources said Juniper had been marketing the Soul apartments in Asia with the promise of three-year rental guarantees on a $2m apartment, equating to $2000 a week. There are still 92 apartments remaining for sale at Soul, according to the Midwood Report, although the group provided no details on sales in the complex during the February quarter.

The yet-to-be-completed 77-level Soul tower fronts both the beach and Surfers' main retail strip, Cavill Mall, on the corner of The Esplanade and Cavill Avenue.

The Australian

INVESTORS who bought into the failed $700 million Oracle Broadbeach development on the Gold Coast have been trying to offload their apartments at auction, but are finding no buyers, according to real estate sources.

It bodes unfavourably for the 200-plus pre-sold apartments in the Juniper Group's Soul apartment project at Surfers Paradise, due to settle in stages from July.

It is understood Juniper has been marketing the Soul apartments in Asia with the promise of three-year rental guarantees on a $2m apartment -- equating to $2000 a week -- and has involved a corporate advisory firm.

Market sources said the apartments at Oracle, on Elizabeth Avenue, Broadbeach, had been put to auction after the investors had settled with the receivers. But the apartments had not sold, mainly because of an expectation receivers would put more stock on the market at steeply discounted prices.

Oracle was placed in voluntary receivership in December by Michael Nikiforides, a director of South Sky Investments, a Niecon-related company. Niecon, of which Con Nikiforides is the chief executive, developed Oracle.

One Oracle apartment owner said then he was aware of people who had bought apartments for $3.5m and had since sold them for $2.5m. As at January, it was believed the developer had secured about $160m from more than 400 pre-sales in the 505-apartment complex, and between October and January about 180 of those had settled.

The value of Gold Coast apartments has typically fallen by 30 per cent since the global financial crisis.

The Oracle project is believed to have cost about $700m, with up to $550m in loans from a syndicate including National Australia Bank, Westpac, Suncorp and Bank of Scotland.

Juniper's Soul, which unlike Oracle is not insolvent, has 92 apartments remaining for sale, according to the latest data from the Midwood Report, although the group provided no details on sales in the complex during the February quarter.

The Australian

Discounting is rife

"Discounting was rife across the state, many vendors being forced to accept offers far lower than they would have last year, Mr Christopher said."Put simply, house prices are falling. The figures can't be disputed by real estate optimists any longer," he said.

"Buyers are now well aware of this and are, as they should be, taking full advantage of the situation by offering well below the asking price of a property.

"Vendors are always the last to know and it seems that many have not caught on yet. They are still personally affronted at the offers being made to them but the reality is, if they don't take today's offers, they risk getting even lower ones in a few months' time."

Mr Christopher said the magnitude of the decline differed in each region of Queensland: some areas were suffering a marginal decline, others an acute drop. He listed the Gold and Sunshine Coasts as the worst hit in the state. Property prices in both regions were predicted to drop by almost 25 per cent by the end of the year."

Source: Fairfax's Domain

Valuer's View

Valuers Herron Todd White's recent report says that, for the apartment market, the Brisbane market and the Sunshine Coast markets are both at the bottom of the market, whereas the Gold Coast market is still declining.

Heavy Discounting on the Gold Coast

"Heavy discounting has helped the previously stalled Gold Coast apartment market move up a gear with several projects finally selling out of stock after languishing on the market. ... the lower prices were giving buyers who knew the market confidence to purchase with the belief that value would return at some stage."

Source: AFR, "Gold Coast units sell, but at a price", page 52 (31 May 2011).

Watch Out For Illegal Conduct of Developers!

A legal case from last year again shows that developers and real estate agents of off-the-plan projects lie to trick people into purchasing. One common trick is to misrepresent the number of apartments sold and the number remaining for sale. (See this prior post.) Another trick, as this case demonstrates, is to have contracts signed at a high price but have an under-the-table rebate -- so that subsequent purchasers don't know the true pricing. Another tactic is for the agent to say that the developer has "stuffed up the pricing" so get in quick today before the developer realises and increases the price.

The case is Stumer Investments Pty Ltd v. Azzura Holdings Pty Ltd [2010] QSC 352 (20 September 2010), involving the off-the-plan purchase of a Gold Coast apartment.

"... Ms Greenwood and Mr Gaffney contracted to purchase an apartment, lot 80, by a contract with the defendant dated 27 December 2006. Their contract specified a price of $508,400. However, on a separate page it contained a special condition, handwritten by Ms Greenwood, which was as follows:

"The settlement to be on forty-five (45) days, but if settlement occurs within thirty (30) days, there will be a rebate of one hundred thousand dollars ($100,000)."

Their evidence is that Mr Kemm asked them to contract in these terms, the mutual intention being that the price would be $408,400, because he thought it desirable that it be represented that this apartment had sold for $508,000, which Ms Greenwood said had become the list price by the time of their contract.

Whilst Mr Stumer knew that Ms Greenwood and Mr Gaffney were themselves buying an apartment, he was unaware of the price and of its significant discount upon the listed price. There is no specific complaint that the non-disclosure of her contract price was misleading and deceptive. However, that non-disclosure, in the circumstances of the long friendship between these individuals, does not enhance her credibility. More importantly, the fact that Ms Greenwood and Mr Gaffney were prepared to facilitate a misrepresentation of their contract price to other potential buyers is relevant to their credibility."

In this case, the real estate agent made misleading statements about the likely future value of the apartment. The contract was cancelled by the court.

Also, have a look at this prior post.

Market Cracks

See this story from Bloomberg:

Luxury Home-Price Cracks Emerge for Australia in Gold Coast, Noosa Heads

Extract:

Apartment prices in the luxury beachside Australian town of Noosa Heads have tumbled by a fifth since 2008 as cracks emerge in a housing market that’s so far escaped the rout seen in the U.S., U.K. and Ireland.

The median apartment price in the tourism and retiree town 150 kilometers (93 miles) north of Brisbane has slumped 21 percent in three years to A$570,000 ($594,000), according to the Real Estate Institute of Queensland. Sales have more than halved across Queensland state’s Sunshine coast, home to “Crocodile Hunter” Steve Irwin’s Australia Zoo, and the Gold Coast, known for its surfing beaches and casinos.

“We have a very overvalued housing market and even a small adverse shock can be magnified by a large adverse impact on property values,” said Gerard Minack, Sydney-based global developed markets strategist at Morgan Stanley (MS), who asserts Australian home prices are as much as 40 percent overvalued. “We’re seeing that now in parts of Queensland.”

Soul Settlements Coming Up

Soul off-the-plan purchasers in the low rise section are getting ready for settlement. Soul is located at Surfers Paradise, in a prime location. It is a very high end high rise. Photo from March showing progress.

Valuers and banks for purchasers are looking at contracts and doing valuations. I have heard of a situation where the apartment was valued at 70% of the contract price. That may not seem to bad, but if the contact price is $2M, then the purchaser needs to find an extra $600,000 to settle.

And there has been no announcement of who will manage this complex.

Will Juniper survive, or head the same way as Raptis and Niecon?

One purchaser is trying to resell his 2 bed apartment for more than a 3 bed apartment is being valued at: www.soul-apartment.com/

Q1 Legal Decision - Purchaser Looses Large Deposit

"Losing a deposit on a property is tough, but when it's almost a million dollars a whole new world of pain can be felt." See Brisbane Times