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Luxury houses and apartments with multi-million dollar price tags tower over Sydney Harbour September 19, 2003. The booming Australian economy is being fuelled largely by soaring house prices, but the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has warned that the "housing bubble" may burst, leaving many heavily-mortgaged Australian homeowners in financial hardship. Reuters/Will Burgess

It might get somewhat expensive for buyers who yearn to own a luxury beachfront apartment if they are considering to buy it from Jewel, the biggest beachfront apartment development in the recent years. For one-bedroom units, they will be asked to belt out AU$675,000, which is twice the average rate in the Gold Coast.

The average price of an apartment in the city is AU$360,000. For the AU$970 million Surfer Paradise project, the base price of two bedroom apartments is AU$1.434 million. On Saturday, 50 apartments in tower one will be unveiled for sale to those who have pre-registered their interest by the developers of Jewel, Chinese developers Dalian Wanda Group and Ridong Group.

According to marketing director Andrew Bampton, the release of the apartments to a select few is a “soft launch” before they start marketing it to a wider customer base.

“We have had people inquiring about the apartments and there have been numerous people that have signed expressions of interest, so we’re giving these people the opportunity to take it further and put it into contract,” News Corp quoted him as saying. “Once we have finalised these sales, in the next couple of weeks we will go to the ­market.”

He also expected to sell most of the 50 apartments on the weekend and that the sale would not only stem from Gold coast but also from Sydney and China. According to an eminent developer the prices are most likely to appeal to buyers from China. He added that while the sales starts in January in Gold Coast, it will be clear which way the profit margins for the Jewel is heading. It will also determine the prices of the apartments as well.

Lynda Campbell, a property consultant with Urbis, said that Jewel will be instrumental in testing the demand for prestige properties in Coast. She also pointed out that its prime location would attract more buyers.

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