Alex Popov-designed McIvor home on Cronin Island house finally resells
Persistance has yielded the resale of the striking two-storey riverfront home, designed by Sydney-based architect Alex Popov, that sits on Cronin Island with 50-metre frontage onto the Nerang River.
It has been on and off the market since 2011, with its last auction on-sale not proceeding to settlement.
It's the much-marketed "Mark McIvor house", which was listed by Fulton Transport boss Gary Fulton, who paid $6.75 million just one year ago.
The former luxury abode of the Equititrust founder Mark McIvor had gone toSeptember 2011 auction, but did not sell until early January 2012 when the price was undisclosed.
At its September 2011 auction Stacey McIvor, the wife of merchant banker and property investor Mark McIvor, wept when the five-bedroom riverfront home drew a top bid of $4.55 million.
At the time a disappointed Mark McIvor said the home had been valued at $6.5 million and that the auction was "a demonstration of a very hard market".
Observers were then highly surprised at the strength of the very bullish $6.75 million price stated in the official DERM land registry paperwork after its January 2012 sale by then marketing agent Michael Kollosche.
The 1,736-square-metre block initially cost $1 million when McIvor bought it in 1994.
McIvor had founded the Gold Coast's own merchant bank, Equititrust, in 1993.
Equititrust, which became known for using a Roman voussoir arch as its marketing logo to suggest structural stability, was among the many unlisted mortgage funds to take a battering following the 2008 financial crisis.
In April 2011 Equititrust confirmed it had stopped paying income distributions to unit holders in two funds housing more than $300 million worth of assets as it accelerated its debt repayments.
Gary Fulton is a freight-traffic operative based in Kemps Creek, NSW.
He initially tried to sell in in August 2012 after just six months ownership.
As it failed to sell at August 2012 auction – passed in on a $5.5 million vendor bid by Coldwell Banker agent Alex Caraco – it was then scheduled for November 3 auction.
After the August auction Alex Caraco suggested interested parties were using the controversy attached to the property to try to get a bargain.
It then sold on a conditional contract in November to Sydney buyers at $5.5 million, with the finance condition being the trigger for the subsequent contract collapse.
So in January the Southern Cross Drive property was back on the market through Coldwell Banker at $5.5 million – "make an offer" is the owner's instructions.
The asking price was reduced more recently to $4.5 million...and its been sold at a yet to be disclosed price through Alex Caraco. Its sold unconditionally to ocal buyers, Property Observer understands.
