Last month, a Mermaid Beach ocean block owned by 17 sellers was purchased by a Melbourne tower developer for $12 million, marking the biggest beachfront sale on the Gold Coast in recent years.
Two of the biggest names in the real estate market, Harry Kakavas, and part-owner of the winning Melbourne Cup horse Fiorente, Luke Henderson, collaborated in selling the Mermaid Beach block to a Victorian investor who will develop the site as a super-penthouse one-apartment-per-floor tower.
Mr Kakavas, formerly known as ‘Harry Hedges’, who just recently announced his return to the property market having recently qualified for his real estate license – introduced the purchaser to Henderson, who had been pursuing the stakeholders in the apartment block for many years to get them as a collective to agree to sell the beachfront property on ‘Millionaires Row’.
Both Mr Kakavas and Mr Henderson say the sale is the biggest beachfront property purchase on the Gold Coast for some time. “This is the biggest sale I can remember in recent history,” said Henderson, from John Henderson Professionals Mermaid Beach.
Harry Kakavas originally arrived on the Gold Coast in 1999 and declared that the beachfront properties were grossly undervalued and went to work acquiring a $20 million property portfolio on Hedges and Albatros Avenue properties. After some serious gambling losses to Crown Casino, he sued Crown, but after a lengthy seven year court battle lost the case.
Kakavas is currently working for Prestige Property Sales.