The vacant Mandalay, a two-level riverfront home in Paradise Waters, is to be auctioned / File
MANY Australians struggle to pay off a mortgage, others have so much money they collect lavish mansions like trinkets.
Such is the bank balance of Queensland businessman David Baird, that he has three multi-million-dolllar mansions on the Gold Coast. One has sat empty and fully furnished since it was completed 11 years ago. Another, a $6.35 million weekend retreat, is just down the road from his main residence - a $10 million island home.
Mandalay on the Gold Coast has sweeping water views. Source: No Source
Mr Baird, the former Melbourne-based Australian head of US company Textron, says it has cost him in excess of $100,000 a year just in upkeep of the empty mansion, Mandalay, in Paradise Waters.
He says $1 million or more could have been earned by renting the vacant home over the past 11 years.
"Doing that has never entered my mind - we don't rent,'' said Mr Baird, who is now selling the property.
Mandalay has five bedrooms, study, library, media room, family room, and formal living and dining rooms.
A first-floor panic room was included in the design when he built the house.
Mr Baird bought the house, which was 90 per cent complete and sits on a 921sq m site, for $2.5 million at auction in 2001 and three hours later paid a different seller $1.4 million for an adjoining 1129sq m vacant block.
He says several hundred thousand dollars was spent completing and furnishing the house. And he estimates the replacement building cost of Mandalay would be in excess of $3 million.
Mandalay has been vacant but fully furnished for 11 years. Source: No Source
The house and the adjoining vacant lot, home to a helicopter pad, are to be auctioned next month.
Mr Baird's decade-long use of the helipad came to an end a fortnight ago when he sold his Eurocopter.
The Mandalay sell-off is a rationalisation by Mr Baird of a portfolio of more than $20 million worth of prime residential property.
The major property in that portfolio is a giant Cronin Island mansion in which Mr Baird and wife Marion have a $10 million-plus investment.
The empty mansion's kitchen has never been used. Source: No Source
It was built for Shuji Yokoyama, the head of Japanese company Daikyo, in the late 1980s.
More than a decade ago Mr Baird and son Matthew sold their telco, Cellular One, to the AAPT group for well in excess of $20 million.
Mr Baird's other activities since he retired to the Gold Coast from Melbourne in 1986 have included being an importer of Ram golf equipment and Hyundai golf carts, a wholesaler of Nike golf apparel, Queensland importer of Bayliner and other boats, and a motor dealer selling Rolls-Royce, Bentley, Lamborghini, Citroen and Alfa Romeo cars.
The Baird Mandalay properties sit on land that previously held the home of former Gold Coast socialite Patti Humphrey.
In the early 1990s Asian businessman Lenard Tan bought the property, demolished the house, split the site into two lots, built a 650sq m house on one and sold the other.
Mike Willems, who is to auction the properties with Ray White Prestige colleague Robert Graham on April 27, says they can be sold as one or separately.
Stunning water views at the vacant home. Source: No Source
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