$100m in four months: $1.5b Jewel cleaning up as apartments sell faster than expected

The $1.5 billion Jewel development on the Gold Coast is making up for lost time and selling faster than expected after clocking up $100 million in sales in just four months.

Jewel, which for years has had completed apartments sitting idle and officially off the market, appears to have timed the release of its first apartments perfectly after selling out the initial tranche of 40 residences for a total of $82 million in just three months.

Developer AW Holding Group placed a second tranche of 30 apartments on the market in April and already has sold half of those, adding about $18 million to its stellar sales run.

According to Adrian Parsons, managing director of project marketer TOTAL Property Group, buyers are even snapping up the display apartments ‘lock, stock and barrel’, right down to the coffee table books.

“We’re way ahead of schedule,” Parsons tells Business News Australia of his team’s sales performance.

“The first release of 40 apartments was a bit of a test. We put those into the market before Christmas and we had all those sold by the end of March.

“We released another 30 in April and we’ve already sold half of them, so the momentum is building which we are really pleased to see.”

The triple-tower project - home to ritzy hotel The Langham, Gold Coast, a hotspot for the well-heeled and global celebrities such as Harry Styles and Rod Stewart since it opened late last year - has been more than a decade in the making.

AW Holding Group, which spent $100 million on the hotel fitout, held off releasing apartments until the luxury hotel occupying the second Jewel tower was up and running.

Now, armed with a rare commodity in the Gold Coast market – finished product as the property industry struggles to get some high-rise projects off the ground – the developer is capitalising on the combination of pent-up demand and wealthy patronage at The Langham to secure apartment buyers.

“A lot of people coming from Sydney and Melbourne are hearing great things about The Langham and we’re finding we’re getting a lot of high-net-worth buyers coming to enjoy The Langham, with some buying apartments,” says Parsons. “Apartment owners have access to a broad range of The Langham’s facilities.”

Almost half of the buyers so far are from Queensland postcodes, while 40 per cent are from NSW. The remainder come from Victoria, New Zealand and one from Finland.

“Apart from the apartments being finished and being located on the beachfront, the connection and the lifestyle that is associated with The Langham is what is really grabbing a lot of our buyers’ attention,” Parsons says.

“In the past people have not really known what Jewel is. They knew the building was built and didn’t know if it was for sale or if people were living there, so initially there was a curiosity when we started marketing the apartments.

“We have had hundreds of people inspect the apartments and all of the unknown that was around the building has now gone as we’ve been able to welcome new residents.”

AW Holding Group is taking a staged approach to selling apartments in Jewel, with the initial focus on the 232 residences in tower one. The developer is yet to reveal its strategy for tower three.

“The owners have a very long-term view of this property,” Parsons says.

“It’s not something they want to sell quickly or need to sell quickly. Their view was to initially release 40 new apartments and see what buyers thought about those first.

“Because they spent over $100 million fitting out The Langham hotel, they want buyers who appreciate what the property has to offer.”

Jewel apartments in the initial releases have been selling from $880,000 for a one bedroom plus multi-purpose-room (MPR), offering 88sqm to 151sqm of living space, to $6.5 million for three-bedroom plus MPR high-floor beachfront apartments from 259sqm.

Parsons says the unique design of the Jewel towers offers variety of design options for apartment buyers.

“The designs are so different and because of the building’s dual façade it’s almost like the apartments have an outer layer of glass which creates that beautiful jewel image,” Parsons says.

“With that, every single apartment is uniquely different. There’s not one apartment that is exactly the same as the other.

“They may have the same floor plans, but the balcony is different in each one – some open, some part open and partly enclosed, while others are fully enclosed.

“The demand for apartments with enclosed balconies is just as strong as those with open balconies.”

Like AW Holding Group, Parsons is settling in for the long haul at Jewel which he says is also fast becoming a landmark for Gold Coast visitors and locals. He even sees Jewel potentially usurping Sunland Group's (ASX: SDG) Q1 development as an architectural symbol of the Gold Coast.

“The Q1 was incredible in its day and it’s still very popular as a reference point for the Gold Coast, but you never see a Gold Coast skyline shot these days that does not feature Jewel,” Parsons says.

“In a way, and partly tongue in cheek, Sydney has its Opera House and we will see that Jewel over time will become synonymous with the Gold Coast.”