From Duplexes to Queensland’s Priciest Penthouse: The MAYD Blueprint

For years, the Gold Coast carried a qualifier: make hay while the sun shines and brace for the inevitable bust. But after years of protracted growth and serious capital investment, MAYD founder Todd Mould says the Coast’s boom-bust era is over. “That [boom-bust cycle] is gone. Everyone’s been waiting for a downturn and that time just hasn’t come, still hasn’t come, and I don’t think it will,” he says. Hot on the heels of a record-breaking penthouse sale in his latest project, a $30-million deal representing $57,142 per sq m internally, Mould says the Glitter Strip’s luxury apartment market has matured. Mould says the One Burleigh penthouse is now the highest off-the-plan sale in Queensland, which he describes as “surreal”. But it was also the moment the conversation changed for MAYD. “It became proof of concept,” Mould says. “The question stopped being why is it so much—it became who is buying it.” And it signals a much bigger shift in the Gold Coast market. Glitter Strip grows up Mould got his start in carpentry, developing duplexes and high-end homes on the water. He then moved into boutique apartments around Burleigh Beach and Miami. The city grew, and so did MAYD. “The Gold Coast as a whole is now a really mature market... the city’s turned a new leaf,” he says. “It’s very established. It’s really put itself on the map globally.” ▲ MAYD founder Todd Mould started in carpentry and developing duplexes. The Olympics, a wave of interstate migration and a demographic of buyer the city simply didn’t attract a decade ago have all contributed. So has the scarcity of what Mould calls A-grade sites—the kind of beachfront land that can actually support an ultra-luxury product. “These key sites that you can actually deliver a product like this on—they’re so scarce, they’re so hard to come by,” he says. “When there is one, they don’t hang around.” Agile vision delivers One Burleigh is a 17 full-floor apartment building—and the full-floor configuration wasn’t always the plan. Originally designed as two apartments per floor, MAYD reconfigured the scheme as the market evolved and construction economics shifted. The result is a building where scarcity is baked into the product itself. The site also has an unusual physical advantage: no trees interrupting the sightlines to the beach from level one. Competitors, Mould says, typically don’t achieve unobstructed view corridors until level eight or nine. “It’s just a site that cannot be replicated,” he says. ▲ Unimpeded views of the coast helped inform the decision to change plans and develop 17 full-floor apartments in the One Burleigh project. The $30-million buyer had been searching across all of South-East Queensland before landing here, according to Mould. That reach—not just Gold Coast shoppers, but buyers surveying the entire state—speaks to the market’s expanded gravitational pull. And the amenity is calibrated to match. Private pool areas, a sauna, an experience designed to feel less like a residential building and more like an exclusive members’ club. Mould is clear about who that’s for. “Quite successful, potentially very wealthy, maybe a slightly older demographic,” he says. “There are certain things in amenity that probably don’t appeal to them. So we’ve tried to meet them where they are.” What comes next MAYD’s pipeline suggests Mould is betting heavily on the thesis that the Gold Coast’s transformation is structural, not cyclical. The Kirra site, acquired late last year , is being reconfigured with a new architect to capture more beachfront views and a broader apartment mix. It will be MAYD’s biggest project to date. The target is a market launch by year’s end, with demolition potentially starting before Christmas and construction early next year. ▲ The builder-developer has a strong focus on the quality of its projects, whether it is single homes such as Lark ( top ), or the multi-residential Prominence ( below ). A second site at Miami—undisclosed for now—is also slated for launch later in the year. Mould says the strategy is deliberately narrow: Gold Coast beachfront, A-grade sites and full control of the build through MAYD’s in-house construction arm. “We’re going to stick to what we know,” Mould says. “We’ll keep acquiring the best quality of site we can.” There has to be a ceiling somewhere in the ultra-luxury market, he acknowledges. But he’s not losing sleep over where it is.

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Taryn Paris
Sun 17 May 26

From Duplexes to Queensland’s Priciest Penthouse: The MAYD Blueprint

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