Billionaire mining magnate Clive Palmer has sunk more than $70 million into Queensland’s richest stretch of beachfront real estate in just six months.
The staggering cash splash comes after the outspoken businessman and former politician shifted focus from the Gold Coast’s manufactured millionaire’s enclave of the Sovereign Islands to its coveted coastline.
Palmer’s latest spend of $26m on a 993sqm vacant Hedges Ave parcel owned by PointsBet founder Andrew Fahey takes his investment along Mermaid Beach’s prized oceanfront strip to a staggering $70.95m since February 2024.
Kollosche agents Michael Kollosche, Harry Kakavas, Troy Dowker and Tony Velissariou handled the deal.
Kollosche also secured Palmer’s first Mermaid Beach buy of the year, an 810sqm block on Albatross Ave formerly owned by V8 Supercars legend, Paul Weel, and sold off market for $16.95m.
Palmer and his wife, Anna, backed that up just weeks later, splashing a whopping $28m on a triple Hedges Ave block which was marketed by Amir Prestige principal Amir Mian as “a tropical oasis”.
The eye-watering outlay marked a renewed focus for the state’s richest man on Mermaid Beach’s so-called ‘Multimillionaire’s Row’, where his most significant previous purchase was of a Hamptons-style mansion secured for $12m in 2018.
And 70-year-old Palmer’s beachfront campaign is only expected to ramp up, with local agents working overtime to put together his next big deal.
Mr Mian said Palmer had “gone straight for the top”, with land value along Mermaid Beach now about $26,000 per square metre.
“I tried to show him some riverfront properties, but he said, ‘no, my target is Hedges Ave’,” he said.
“The reason is obvious – there is only so much coastline and prime beachfront sites are always in high demand.”
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Palmer has already amassed a cache of mega mansions within the gated community of Sovereign Islands in Paradise Point.
His biggest buy there was $20m in 2021 for a lavish home resembling a spaceship, bringing his spend across the estate to more than $40m.
PropTrack data shows the median house price in Mermaid Beach soared 24 per cent over the past 12 months to $3.29m, making it Queensland’s second most expensive suburb behind Teneriffe, in inner city Brisbane.