Sales show Gold Coast is back in business

SALES worth more than $34 million have settled in the $850 million Soul supertower in Surfers Paradise.

Property records show sales of seven apartments in the 77-storey tower were finalised at the end of last year for a total of $12.02 million, indicating a turnaround in the prestige property sector.

CBRE's residential marketing director Chris Litfin said the end-of-year buying surge in Soul came as the city's prestige apartment sector registered one of its best Christmas sales periods in five years.

The highest-priced property was a $4 million two-level subpenthouse which was acquired by Andrew Greig, the boss of construction giant Bechtel Australia.

Six other apartments sold for between $1.05 million and $2 million. A Sydney-based investor paid $3.7 million for two apartments on level 50.

The settlements came after the beachfront Surfers Paradise tower was relaunched to the market in the wake of receivers taking on management of the project when banks called in the debt last October.

Mr Litfin said the Christmas period had seen a resurgence in high-end apartment sales.

"We had the best Christmas in five years by a long way,'' he said. "It did come off a low base but we saw really strong sales across a string of projects, and to have people spending over $1 million on an apartment is a massive improvement.''

He said there had also been two sales, at $1.4 million each, for apartments at Eclipse in Broadbeach.

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