AROUND the corner, tacky souvenir shops are selling beer coolers with pictures
of Australia and England and the message “15,384 kilometres: it’s a bloody
long way”. A tattoo and piercing parlour called Off Ya Tree is attracting
young surfer types, including a teenager who shouts to her friends: “I want
to get my belly button pierced . . . come on, let’s do it together!”Another
group in baggy shorts and T-shirts is hanging around outside the XXXX Bottle
Shop, a busy off-licence. They look as if they’re in for a long day and
night of revelry.
I’m in Surfers Paradise, the centre of all things surfing and wild on the east
coast of Australia; a sprawling resort of concrete apartments and hotels
that attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors (many of them British) every
year. But while there is much wildness near by, it’s all sophisticated calm
and fengshui relaxation where I am – a giant apartment block, 1,056ft
(322m) tall, called Q1, with mind-blowing views along Queensland’s hugely
popular Gold Coast.
Q1 was opened in October 2005 by the Sunland Group, one of Australia’s biggest
property developers. It is the world’s tallest residential apartment block,
has 80 storeys and is the twentieth tallest building on the planet.
Q1 has 526 super-stylish apartments for sale, most through local agents, with
a handful of the more expensive “sky residences” still up for grabs. Prices
range from £339,000 for a one-bedroom property to £1.4 million for a
penthouse suite. The sales blurb describes the tower as “the definitive
embodiment of metropolitan style in a magnificent beach location”.
At the base of the tower is a French restaurant called Absynthe, which, with
its clever spotlights, designer chairs and Michelin-starred chef Meyjitte
Boughenout, was recently chosen by Gourmet Traveller, a leading
Australian foodie magazine, as “regional restaurant of the year”. At the
top, after taking a lift that claims to be the fastest in the southern
hemisphere at nine floors per second, there is the Sky Bar, which serves
cocktails, champagne and designer beers.
In short, with its minimalist, extremely functional rooms – which include chaises-longues,
slate-grey carpets, veranda-like spaces that allow fresh air in through
clever windows, sliding doors, flat-screen TVs and spa baths – it is all
terribly metrosexual. Some even say it has helped to develop a new type of
Australian citizen: the “yuppie surfer”. “Sure, we get surfers. Surfing is
part of the culture here,” said Sahba Abedian, managing director of Sunland
Group.
He explains why he believes Q1 is likely to succeed: “We’re going to find
that, as the population of the world increases, the only solution to house
people is the vertical village. We are now seeing increases in populations
across the world. Architecture must embrace that.”
Abedian believes many customers are young professionals from cities such as
Brisbane as well as Sydney and Melbourne. But there are also “silver
surfers”. “We are finding in Australia that there is a changing demographic.
Baby-boomers moving into retirement are opting to stay in a destination that
offers a healthy, lively lifestyle.”
Surfers Paradise is the fastest-growing city in Australia, according to the
latest figures; one survey suggested that 44 people were moving to the Gold
Coast every day. Its population is now 500,000. Barker Tomlins, a local
estate agency, said: “Every summer people are coming back to us and saying:
‘I wish I bought last year’.”
Of course, Surfers Paradise is a long way to go for a holiday home – 15,384
kilometres, as the beer cooler attested. But a small matter of flying to the
other side of the Earth will not get in the way of a true yuppie surfer.
Sunland Group (00 61 7 55 643700, www.sunlandgroup.com.au, www.q1.com.au)
TOM CHESSHYRE
JUST AS well that Australians are an unruffled breed: the Q1 tower has put
Surfers Paradise on the map for outsized buildings, but the development had
best not get too comfortable with the title of world’s tallest residential
tower. The chilled-out luxury development is in the process of being
outclassed by a rival, the ultra-lavish Pentominium development in Dubai.
The Pentominium is one of six supertowers which should be complete in the
emirate by 2015. With such a crowded skyline and thousands of apartments
under construction, setting records is a must for developers keen to bolster
sales. This is, after all, the city in which residents proudly point out the
world’s largest shopping mall, a mega-resort in the making with its own
Eiffel Tower and Taj Mahal and plans for the first underwater hotel.
Many of these records come with conditions. The 1,692ft (515.7m) Pentominium
will actually be the world’s tallest “residential-only development” on
completion in 2011. The Dubai Burj, a complex of apartments and nine hotels
featured in Bricks and Mortar in November, is midway to completion, rising
by one floor a week, and will tower to about 2,600ft (792.4m) when ready for
occupation next year. Its developer, Emaar, will then start another
mixed-use supertower, the Al Burj, which it promises will be taller still.
But the developers of the Pentominium, designed by the British architects
Aedas, hope to outpace rivals with levels of privacy and over-the-top luxury
fit for an oligarch. Demand for prime property in Dubai, as in London,
remains unsated, boosted by the city’s tax-free status and location,
relatively central for such emerging economies as India, Russia and China.
Each 6,500 sq ft unit in the Pentominium, priced from £1.5 million to £5
million, occupies a single floor, with four bedrooms, staff quarters,
private terrace and foyer. A biometric entry system allows for a keyless
security system. Shared facilities include a sky lounge, observation deck,
spa, Tiffany & Co accessorised business centre, Davidoff-stocked cigar
lounge, banqueting hall, private theatre and, on the 100th floor, an
infinity pool overlooking the Palm Jumeirah.
Swarovski crystal light fittings and Bang and Olufsen sound systems are used
and residents will have a fleet of Rolls-Royce cars and Azimut yachts at
their disposal. Other desires can be met by a concierge service run by the
British company Quintessentially: residents are likely to have more complex
expectations than the-surfer resident of the Q1, who likely lusts only for a
good wave.
This profitable super-luxury market is also being tapped by the rival
developer Damac Properties, which has launched a series of single-floor
apartments, which average 11,000 sq ft and are likened “mansions in the
sky”. Damac says that it has sold more than 300 apartments worth more than
£1 million this year alone; it is now upping the ante with the Signature
Series, with private cinemas, lifts and staff quarters, which are priced
from £7 million to £9 million.
Wazir Daredia, Trident chief executive, the developer of the Pentominium, says
entrepreneurial residents will probably fly in guests or corporate clients
to enjoy their “collector’s item” apartment. Such guests might be expected
to enjoy the marina location and its 452,000 sq ft shopping mall and
entertainment centre, which was unveiled this week and will be ready next
year; the owners themselves will more likely appreciate the view of the vast
profits churned up in the internet city below.
Trident International Holdings, www.tihglobal.com, +971-4883 0555
JUDITH HEYWOOD
SURFFILE
Property prices have risen by 23 per cent in parts of Surfers Paradise in the
past year.
A well-presented one-bedroom apartment in the area costs from £165,000, a
two-bedroom £290,000 and a three-bedroom about £375,000.
Foreign buyers are allowed to buy new properties only direct from developers.
The Foreign Investment Review Board (www.firb.gov.au) offers information.
There are 300 days of sunshine each year.
To
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