Gurner plans $120m Gold Coast project for ‘hottest market in Australia'

Tim Gurner has ramped up his push into Queensland with plans for a $120 million residential tower in a beachside Gold Coast suburb that the property entrepreneur has labelled as the ‘hottest market in Australia’.

Gurner’s eponymous property group has teamed up with financier MaxCap Group for the 22-storey project at Burleigh Heads which will deliver 80 apartments to a market that has been notably described as undersupplied. Gurner and MaxCap have a long working history together, partnering in property deals worth $1.5 billion over the past decade.

The latest development comes on the heels of Gurner’s plans for a $1.25 billion landmark Gold Coast project known as La Pelago, which will comprise four towers on a long-dormant site at Budds Beach on the northern fringe of Surfers Paradise. Gurner plans to release the first of the La Pelago apartments to the market later this year.

Gurner has yet to lodge a development application for the 1,012sqm Burleigh Heads site which is positioned on Gold Coast Highway, a block away from the Burleigh beachfront.

The entrepreneur says the Gold Coast portfolio is integral to his company’s strategic push into in Queensland.

“It’s a market we have great confidence in, and one that will continue to play an important role in our company’s growth,” says Gurner.

“We are doing some huge things this year nationally, but also on the Gold Coast. This includes the launch of our $1.25 billion La Pelago, which will redefine luxury living and bring world-class retail, hospitality and amenity to the area.

“There is no doubt that Burleigh Heads is the hottest market in Australia right now, and it’s a place we have to be in. “

Gurner cites the success of developers Chris and Letitia Vitale who sold out their $450 million Mondarian mixed-use development at Broadbeach last year within six months of launching the project.

The most recent Urbis Apartment Essentials report revealed the strength of new apartment sales on the Gold Coast in 2021. Sales for the September quarter surged to 690, bringing the total of new apartments sold on the Glitter Strip in the first nine months of the year to 1,882. The nine-month figure eclipsed the previous full-year record of 1,556 sales in 2016.

Urbis also revealed that ‘record high demand is meeting record low supply, which has led to the most acute shortage of new apartments ever experienced on the Gold Coast’. It found the southern beaches precinct, which includes Burleigh Heads to Coolangatta, is facing the most critical shortage of apartments.

Gurner’s national development pipeline currently exceeds $10 billion, with the company’s activities bolstered last year through $1.2 billion in equity funding that will be used to create a major build-to-rent development fund. The company has already earmarked build-to-rent projects in Sydney and Melbourne comprising a total of 1,700 apartments.