Jarrod McCracken's Clarke's Cove sold at auction

 A major land sale at a lunchtime auction last Friday marked the fourth success story in as many weeks according to PRD principal Christie Leet.

 “There’s been four major site sales in the last four weeks – we haven’t seen as many as that in the last two years,” Mr Leet said.

 Mr Leet confirmed the recent sales included a site at Funnel Bay (fetching $2.225 million), another at Eagle Road ($1.8million) and ‘Santi’ in the heart of Airlie Beach (which sold for $2million last Thursday).

 Four bidders participated in Friday’s auction for the Cape Gloucester site ‘Clarke’s Cove’, which was originally owned by rugby league star Jarrod McCracken. McCracken achieved notoriety in 2007 for clearing 10ha of land at the coastal retreat without the necessary approvals.

 Clarke’s Cove now has approval for subdivision into six blocks. The site sold for $2.55million, with Mr Leet saying in excess of $1 million was still to be spent under Whitsunday Regional Council’s rectification order.

 The Clarke’s Cove site (on Earlando Road) occupies nearly 1,000 acres at Cape Gloucester with around 2km’s of coastline – “bounded by National Park on three sides and the Pacific Ocean on the fourth”.

 Mr Leet said people tended not to realise that “in the Whitsundays there’s almost no waterfront land”.

 Mr Leet also said the recent sales were a good sign the property market was moving into the next phase of recovery.

 “When you look at the property cycle, there’s no doubt developers move back into the market before the mums and dads. They always buy in at good prices and the market follows,” he said.