Coast Hotspot Caravan Park Goes to Market

A significant parcel of beachfront land in one of Queensland’s top spots is on the market with price expectations north of $25 million.

The 37,500sq m NRMA Agnes Water Holiday Park is expected to attract interest from domestic and international investors looking for land banking and capital growth opportunities in the coastal town.

CBRE Hotels’ agent Paul Fraser said it was an “exceptional” seaside offering of caravan sites, cabins and campsites across 133 lots.

“To have such a significant lot size on absolute beachfront in Agnes Water is unheralded,” Fraser said.

“To then have this incredible parcel of real estate tenanted by one of Australia’s largest and most successful park operators leads us to believe this asset will demand widespread appeal from a national and international market.”

Price expectations are between $25 million and $30 million.

Agnes Water is the closest access point to the Southern Great Barrier Reef and is regarded as the most northern surfing spot in Queensland.

It was voted the Top Small Tourism Town in Queensland last year, and experienced tourism growth of more than 100 per cent year-on-year since the onset of the pandemic.

There is substantial development in the wings for the town with a 30.6ha development, including retail and commercial properties, planned as well as a $1-million upgrade to the road between Agnes Water and 1770.

CBRE Asia Pacific director Dillon Murphy said Agnes Water would continue to attract tourists as borders reopened.

“This, coupled with the secure long-term lease to a nationally recognised tenant, will provide a forward-thinking investor with a long-term income stream and high capital growth potential,” Murphy said.

It is the latest in a string of caravan parks to go to market as institutional investors look to capitalise on the alternative asset class, traditionally favoured by mum-and-dad investors.

There were more than 100 leisure parks listed for sale at the end of 2021 as owners looked to cash-in on the capital being deployed to the sector.

Tasman Holiday Parks plans to double its portfolio over the next three years after a $300-million private equity raise. The group has swooped on 21 holiday parks in Australia and New Zealand since 2019 in a $250-million land and asset grab.

HTL director Andrew Jackson told The Urban Developer that 2021 had been a strong year of off-market transactional activity with new capital trying to gain a foothold in this tightly held and rapidly evolving sector.

“This targeted strategy illustrates the metamorphosis of what has now well and truly evolved from a mum-and-dad cottage industry into being wholly corporatised and consequently widely recognised as offering institutional-grade investment attributes on par with any other asset class,” Jackson said.

The NRMA Agnes Water Holiday Park will be sold via an expression of interest campaign due to close on March 10.