Sammut Group Bucks Trend with $11.5m Apartment Sale

Sydney-based developer Sammut Group and investor partner Alceon are defying nationwide odds, inking an $11.52-million deal for a full-floor apartment in their yet-to-be-completed 37-storey Gold Coast beachfront tower.

It’s their second full-floor sale in less than a month after a New Zealand buyer paid $10.75 million for an apartment in February.

Only seven of the 53 apartments in the $200-million development remain, including an 1140sq m penthouse.

Lead agent and Highland Property Group chief executive David Highland said marketing of the penthouse would begin soon with the expectation it could bring up to $30 million.

“If you look at the sales in the past 30 days, they’re the highest square metre rates on the Gold Coast,” Highland told The Urban Developer.

And that’s where the developer is bucking the trend.

Tightened monetary policy, rising inflation and interest rates, higher construction costs and a shrinking pool of contractors after the collapse of a string of builders have left some developers rethinking their commitment to the area.

But Cronulla-based Sammut Group pressed ahead with its first Gold Coast project on the beachfront site at 43 Garfield Terrace. It contracted construction giant Multiplex, who expects to complete the tower by early 2025.

▲ For the second time in a month, a buyer has paid more than $10 million for a full-floor apartment in Sammut’s beachfront tower.

Speaking of the latest full-floor sale, chief executive Allen Sammut said with just a handful of apartments remaining, buyers were recognising the rare opportunity to secure a spot in the highly sought-after luxury development.

With minimum floor plates of 287sq m and entry-level prices of $5.6 million, the apartments are definitely for the well-heeled and those arguably less affected by 10 straight interest rate rises since May last year.

Highland said in many cases buyers were looking for a second or third home. Interest had come from Sydney, Melbourne, parts of Brisbane, as far as New Zealand and in some cases, expats wishing to return to Australia.

“I would say the Gold Coast market is holding up, in some ways better than in parts of Sydney,” he said. “And the fundamentals are that there’s a lot more money that’s gone up there, both through Covid and post-Covid.”

▲ Selling agents say the Gold Coast property market is staying strong, particularly with high-end apartments and beachfront views such as this one.

Figures released last week by Colliers International support that argument.

The global real estate services company said its research showed national house prices had fallen more than five times as much as those on the Gold Coast.

Colliers market overview report indicates Gold Coast’s median house price slipped by $15,000, or 1.5 per cent, to $925,000 at the end of 2022—down from the $940,000 reported at the peak of the market in June last year.

The modest price drop on the Gold Coast compares with a record fall of 8.4 per cent in CoreLogic’s national daily home value index, from the peak of the market in May 2022.

Colliers’ Gold Coast director-in-charge Steven King said the latest data, supported by continued growth in the city’s commercial property sector, showed Gold Coast prices were holding firm amid volatile conditions nationally.

“The latest population forecasts, the strength of the Gold Coast’s employment market and the massive investment in infrastructure across the city is providing the local property market with remarkable resilience,” King said.

Highland agrees. “The infrastructure is obviously evolving and it’s come a long way from where it was, but it’s now a destination that high-net-worth individuals want to be involved in, both professionally and personally.”