Gold Coast unscathed by Asian crisis

Gold Coast unscathed by Asian crisis

By Dewi Anggraeni

MELBOURNE (JP): Being a tourist haven, Queensland's Gold Coast
often does not immediately appear as a sought after residential
area as well. Yet the population grows by 13,000 per year, and
each week, 100 new homes are needed by new arrivals from other
areas in Australia, as well as from overseas.

Among those who have found a home on the Gold Coast are
Veriani and Barry Gozahli, Indonesians from Jakarta. To Veriani,
this corner of Queensland is the best place for living and
bringing up a family. Robina, the very pleasant residential
estate where they live, is just over an hour's train ride from
Brisbane, the state capital. With the newly opened fast-rail
link, the traveling time will be significantly reduced.

"We are close to Queensland University in Brisbane, and
Griffith University Gold Coast campus is practically next door.
My children happen to go those universities," said Veriani.

"The climate is very friendly," she added, "It's nice and warm
with just the right humidity all year round. Extreme weather
eludes us, no flooding, no cyclones, no fires."

She and their three children have been living in Robina since
1990, while her husband Barry, who has a property business in
Jakarta, travels to spend time with his family whenever his
business allows. Apart from socializing with their Australian
friends, the Gozahlis also keep in touch with around 30 of the
Indonesian families who also live on the Gold Coast. Not all
Indonesians who live here have their own business like Barry and
Veriani. Many are working in the hospitality industry. With
soaring unemployment and an economic crisis at home, it is
understandable that these expatriates have no immediate
intentions of leaving the Gold Coast.

This tourist haven on Australia's eastern coast indeed emerged
relatively unscathed from the storm of Asia's economic crisis. In
fact, it is rearing for a new decade of development growth.
While figures show that the numbers of Asian tourists to the Gold
Coast in 1998 have dropped by 24 percent, those from other areas
of the world have been coming in droves, encouraged by the
competitive rate of the Australian dollar. The numbers of
visitors from Europe have climbed by 8.9 percent, New Zealand by
3.8 percent, and the Americas by 12.7 percent.

Expecting a continued growth in 1999 out of the United
Kingdom, Europe and the Americas, the state and federal
governments have devised plans accordingly. They are spending
A$800 million to have the Brisbane-Gold Coast road widened to an
eight-lane highway. In the meantime, $200 million has been raised
from privatizing the redevelopment of the Gold Coast's
Coolangatta airport, to allow international flights to bypass
Brisbane airport. The total budget for new development projects
underway or planned is $9.2 billion.

One high-profile project in Surfers Paradise, the Gold Coast,
which has had a write up in Harpers Bazaar magazine, is Versace
Hotel, owned by the well-known Versace fashion house.

Realizing Surfers Paradises' power to draw domestic and
international tourists, City Council is continuously investing in
the upgrading of the area. Shopping malls, streets and lanes
along the beach have been remodeled into a shady mini city.
Tropical palms line streets and lanes, looking somewhat like a
dream under the newly installed fibreoptic lighting. And since
the council is not happy with the current highway cutting into
Surfers Paradise, it is working on a project to divert it.

The Gold Coast must be real estate equivalent to an already
pretty person being continuously and progressively made up to be
a movie star with no expense spared, even using silicon surgical
fillers wherever deemed necessary. Apart from building new shops,
hotels, entertainment centers, apartment blocks, roads and rail
links, making the city increasingly alluring to tourists and
conducive to live in, the Gold Coast City Council is also
designing a very unusual project. As if it were necessary to cast
in concrete the municipality's reputation as a surfers' paradise,
it is constructing an artificial reef at one of the beach
locations, Narrowneck. The $2 million triangular shaped reef is
expected to produce perfect left and right waves for surfers. The
mind boggles.

It is interesting to note that, while there is a considerable
amount of foreign money invested in the Gold Coast, the bulk of
investments still come from Australians. Mirvac's $110 million
property development project, Liberty on Tedder, for instance, so
far attracts mostly buyers from Queensland itself, with some from
other states. Shareholders of the airport upgrade are all
Australians. This strong faith shown by locals has made the Gold
Coast even more attractive to foreign investors who can afford
buying into this tourism-driven haven, as it is not so vulnerable
to irresponsible speculators. And violent fluctuations seem
unlikely.

It is human nature, however, to try to exploit what appears to
be an opportunity. Many unscrupulous individuals fronting as real
estate agents have been known to trap unwary would-be investors.
Judy Spence, Queensland minister for fair trading, promises to
draw new legislation covering the property marketing industry.
Unlicensed real estate promoters have taken large commissions and
sold properties by promising unrealistic financial returns, the
minister discovered.

Barry Gozahli agreed that a crack down on these practices is
necessary.

"It has not only happened in Australia," said Barry, who went
on to relate his experience, where he met a property business
dealer in Jakarta who tried to sell him a property on an
undeveloped and unserviced site on the Gold Coast for an
exorbitant price.

"Lucky I know the Gold Coast well, but how many people have
been conned? I wonder," said Barry.

So if you have money to park in the Gold Coast, do take time
to find a reputable, licensed real estate agent to assist you.