A massive block of land forgotten by heirs for 75 years after its owner died is among 30 properties earmarked for forced sale in South East Queensland.
This as the City of Gold Coast on Thursday issued public notices of intention to sell 30 properties in early 2025 for arrears that, in some cases, stretch back years in an area that’s seen some of the biggest price surges since the pandemic.
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The Currumbin Valley 7,000sq m-plus block (1.8acres) has arrears of $9,589.60 after the Gold Coast City Council began applying levies on the site when the grandchildren of the owner George Bertram McClymont came forward in 2014 to stop the site being resumed for parkland.
The overdue amount is a tiny fraction of about half a per cent of the current Currumbin Valley median dwelling price of $1.625m, which has jumped by 83.1 per cent in the past five years with median rent now $1,075 a week for homes in the area.
The block had been unclaimed for 75 years after Mr McClymont died in 1940, with his grandchildren making themselves known to council after a September 2014 report by the Gold Coast Bulletin over a plan to create parkland on the site about 35km south of Surfers Paradise.
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At the time, a council spokesman indicated the family would not be made 75 years worth of charges that could have been levied on the property, but since then the numbers have been racking up annually.
Gold Coast City Council acting chief executive Paul Callander has it set to be put up for auction in early 2025 unless the arrears are cleared.
“At this stage we anticipate holding an auction in the first quarter of next year,” a Gold Coast council statement said.
Several of the properties on the council’s hit list have ownership addresses offshore including an apartment metres from the beach belonging to an owner listed in the Philippines which has been subject to a notice of intention to sell by council previously.
A council statement said they’d “resolved to sell land because overdue rates and charges have remained unpaid for a period longer than the period allowed under section 140(1)(c) of the Local Government Regulation 2012”.
That period is three years for some or all the rates or charges that are overdue, according to legislation.
The Gold Coast is the second most expensive property market in the country behind Sydney and ahead of Brisbane, and extremely popular with retirees and investors, with a significant short-term rental segment active for the holiday market.