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🎧 Real deals, real strategies, real results. Learn how to find, fund, and operate profitable property plays from someone who’s actually done it.
Hosted by Andrew Wright, principal of Professionals Southport and a commercial investor who rebuilt after losing a ~$15M portfolio during the GFC, this podcast gives you a straight-talking look at what it really takes to build wealth through property.
Each episode delivers practical frameworks, real deal breakdowns, and honest conversations with high-performing investors and operators across residential and commercial.
But it’s bigger than the episodes. The goal is to build a community of like-minded investors who share stories, swap insights, help each other grow and maybe even do deals together.
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📍 Connect with Andrew: hello@andrewwrightproperty.com.au
Hi, I'm Andrew Wright, principal of Professional Southport, and this is the Andrew Wright Property Podcast. I've built a multimillion dollar property portfolio delivering a seven figure annual rental income, and led my real estate team through thousands of sale and lease transactions in each episode. I share real deals and strategies that will help you find, fund and operate profitable property deals.
The aim of this show is to provide education and build a community of like-minded investors who can collaborate, share insights, and help each other in each other's journeys. You can make excuses or you can make money, but you can't do both. So come and join us.
Hello there and welcome back to the Andrew Wright Property podcast today. We are all absolutely blessed to have a very good friend of mine in the podcast. Peter Puljich came to Australia from Croatia in 1968, built his foundations from building high-rise buildings on the Gold Coast, and later turned to property development.
Today, Peter is the founder of Living Gems. And one of his sons, Anthony runs that business and another son Adrian, is the co-founder of Gem Life. With Peter, one of Australia's most successful land lease lifestyle community businesses. These companies now operate large scale communities across Queensland and Australia, employing hundreds of people and building thousands of homes for Australians.
Outside of work, Peter has built and donated a church to the community, sponsored the Croatian soccer Club here on the Gold Coast. Loves playing chess and eating fine food. He has a very close family with four children that in their own right are very, very successful.
11 grandchildren.
11 grandchildren.
Yes. Peter, welcome to the podcast.
Thank you. Thanks Andrew.
Now before we get, uh, serious, uh, can you tell us, um. When you developed a love for the sport of soccer and playing chess, Peter?
Well, soccer, we play, uh, since as soon as we started walking, we play soccer and we, and we play. So during the day we had to work.
Mm.
No one takes your training. Parents don't track your training. No one buys your shoes. You do what? You got mostly barefoot and rock and you play soccer from late evening when the sun goes down. When you can't work on in field on farms, you go and play in winter. In summer months, you'll play till one o'clock in the morning.
That's how you develop real skill. That's why we've got 3.6 million people. We be it Brazil. It's like with Zimbabwe, beating all blacks. We beat Brazil. Okay. Because we love and passion. It's not developed on, uh, training twice a week. Two hours a week. It's every day. And that's very good. I, I loved, and chess, I started playing, I remember it was Olympic Games in si in, um, 1960.
Uh, I was 30 years old. I, I started playing chess and I loved the game and I still played, uh, almost, nearly every day.
Wow. I just liked, um, the number one thing I want the listeners to this, um, podcast to remember is, uh, couple of weeks ago, uh, for the first time in the history of civilization. I beat Peter Pulit in a game of chess.
Can you verify that please, Peter? Yes,
you did. Yes, you did. You know, even the best can lose.
Okay, well, that's the end of today's podcast. That's all I would like to talk about. Thank you very much for listening, Peter. So, 1968, uh, you came from Croatia. Can you, can you tell us, um. Why you left and you went to Sydney?
What, what were the circumstances around that?
Well, I was born, uh, Croatia then was occupied, uh, and was known as Yugoslavia, which I never identified myself with being Yu Croatia. Mm-hmm. And if I didn't want to join Communist party. Uh, uh, that I had no place to be there. So I was told either join the party or, or get out.
Mm-hmm.
Uh, and I decided to go out. I decided, uh, I had a big accident working on a government job to make some money. Uh, I needed to lost my arm six months in hospital. I never got paid, never got compensation. That's the socialist country that they try to promote how the human they are. Well, my arm, my, my right arm tells you I didn't get anything.
They even gave me a, they even sent. My family ambulance bill.
Oh,
really? Taking me from the fields into the, the government job. But anyway, I'm, I came to, I was a refugee in Germany. I was a refugee in Germany. And uh, I, uh, I'm thankful to German people. They fed me for eight, nine months. I registered to, I had to register to either, uh, Australia, New Zealand, America, and Canada, South Africa.
Mm-hmm.
And German said, we only give you temporary shelter. I only registered one for one. I registered to go to Australia. Don't know just one. Mm. But I did only one. They said, why one? I said, I just wanna go to Australia. What if they don't take you? I said, they'll take me. And they, and I came and I remember, uh, I, I was fortunate to have flew.
They flew me in on Boeing seven or seven. I landed in Melbourne and then went on to Sydney on the same plane. They took me, uh, uh, on a little red bus, London bus from Sydney Airport to show me. Uh, a bit of Australia, they showed me Bonday Beach, the best place in the world. Bondai Beach. Yeah. So going there and then they took us in the black birds and the, uh, kook barrels at the, at the Villawood Hotel, which I sat there for three months eating Irish stew.
And, uh, was was beautiful place.
Hmm.
And, uh, that is my reason why I didn't wanna be a, a member of the Communist Party.
Okay. And, uh, your journey into work, was it straight into construction or,
well, three months after I had enough of the RUI got a job, uh, in Kamal factory in, uh, Merrickville.
Mm-hmm.
And then three days I didn't even pick up my pay, I didn't send, that's just too, too hard for me, too dusty, too much metal, dust and everything.
So I left it. And I got myself a job in, um, uh, glass Factory. Then I moved to Sydney, uh, to Newtown, suburb of Sydney in Sydney. And um, I was there eight months. And then somebody suggested I should go to construction. I went to construction, and then I was offered a job to, uh, mix, uh, cement a mud for plasters.
And, uh, it was on a Croatian gang. And I was promised if I am a good worker. After eight months, they buy, they'll buy me tools and they'll become a plaster, solid plaster.
Mm-hmm.
It's, it's a tough job. It's hard, but nothing is tough when you needed a job and when you're young. And so I, I kept saying to people, I'll mix mud for you now, but once I know how to throw mud on the wall, you'll all come work for me.
And it happens. It happens like that.
And were you able to speak good English at this time?
No. I, I never, never, I couldn't speak English, but I love English, although I've got a big, very thick accent. I can't get rid of it, but this accent makes me money.
Okay. And. You, so obviously you, you loved, uh, Bondi Beach and you fell in love with Australia.
You never wanted to go back, uh, in the early years. No. Um, how did you get into high rise construction, Peter?
Well, I've was, um, I went, um, I've got my own gangs and this company Progress in properties in Dfor in Sydney Renwick. Uh, one morning Boss said to me, would I, like, would I like to go to a job for them in S Paradise?
Never head with S Paradise because I travel, I walk every morning from. Bondi Beach to Ji Beach. Never seen a place called S Paradise. And I said, must be near Manly. It's on the water. I said, what water? He said, yes, it's by the water. Anyway, and then I, um, I came and the building that I did here was, um, uh, called, named condo.
And, and today I live on the other side of the road, diagonal of the condo on level 48 and 49. And I, every morning I have a cup of coffee, a walk back and say, thank you, condo. I'm here because of you.
Uh, that's, that, that one you, that's when you met John faa, is it?
And John FAA came, uh, next building, 1976.
He came to do, uh, Thornton Tower Tho. Towers Thornton Street in Surface. But I, I met John. I met John in Sydney. Ji
Yeah.
I did some work for him in Sydney.
Yes.
And I was fortunate they brought, I already established to be good friends. Actually, John FAA was the one that First Men introduced me to meat pies in Australia.
Okay.
I eat my fast meat pie with John.
At some stage, um, you've transitioned from being a builder to being a developer. Um, how did that transition happen? Did you run outta work with John or did you just
Look, I, I was, um, I was doing plastering and then I was doing, uh, brick playing.
Mm-hmm.
And Gibro King and a labor hire and everything.
And I, I realized that because I'm a subcontractor and a contractor. All the money you make, you gotta declare pay tax, which normal. But I thought if I go into property, I can develop it. And if you don't sell it, you don't have to pay tax straight away.
Good idea. Yeah.
And I said then the industry went, went on its knees, 1982 because the Gold Coast was very volatile, was small place, no self-sufficient like today.
And uh, went everything. And I bought, I had some land and I had to trade some land and bought a caravan park. To, uh, a bit of income and mostly to to house my, uh, uh, uh, construction gear, my mixers and planks and everything. 15 acres of caravan park six developed. Now I'm not developed. I said, this is perfect.
I can, I can put all my, 'cause I, I was making good money. I did, I didn't need the money, but it was $1,800, actually. 1800 and th uh, $1,830 every week I used to get.
Mm-hmm. So you bought a caravan, parking coba bar. It was 15 acres, is that right?
15 acres, yes.
And what did you pay for that site
there? Uh, I paid for 1.1 million.
1.1.
Yeah, I did some, I did some trading. And put some cash in, but trade in. And the bank financed then.
And you mentioned, uh, in the car on the way here that you bought a couple of, and then little bits next door. Is that right?
And then I was gonna develop it. I've seen next door, they're building houses. I said, my god, these Glendale house.
I said, that's, you wouldn't want live. You wouldn't live in Europe, in Glendale house. I said, this. Big, rich land. I said, I've gotta give you something better. So I said, I'm gonna do something that means I need to get rid of my carvan park. I said, no, I'm gonna go and leave the carvan park as below income and buy another entrance into my land.
And by landscaping, not landscaping, the nursery? Nursery,
yeah.
Four and a half acres. I paid $450,000. Hmm. And then when I did completed, I found that that the little church group had a a half an acre land tact amongst my land. Uh, facing, uh, Hansel Road and I seen what I'm doing and they said we, if you wanna buy us $200,000, but I only paid 450 for four and a half acres.
Mm-hmm.
But I had to buy them, which is good. Good idea. Then I bought, I bought 216 homes and Andrew, I, when I develop mine, I get all my money back.
So you got your money back by selling the
home? I was selling the house.
But you kept the land. It
was lease sold. Yes. I, I, I sell a house.
Yeah.
And I, I, I price the land and all the infrastructure
mm-hmm.
And everything. I sell the, sell the house and get every cent back and put some money in the pocket. So when I finished, uh, 216 homes, if you, if you ask me what return is, what you tell me what return is, if you, if you, if the, if the land cost you nothing, what, what return is
infinity. Infinity,
yes.
So you ended up, you could have held that site, but after selling the houses, you then sold the block of land.
They
actually, no. No. They, uh, um. I, I sold the houses and I was collecting, uh, aside fees for over 20 years.
Mm-hmm.
I was, I was schooling my boys and I was schooling, I was helping my family and my wife, family in Europe and I was on holidays. I were paying my boys at TSS and private universities and everything and I then I went develop on, uh, more villages from, from the strength of that.
Okay. Eventually you sold that caravan park. Um, what price did you sell it for?
No, no, we didn't. The Cameron Park was developed into the mobile homes. Into mobile homes.
Okay.
216. 216 mobile homes.
Okay.
And if it was only sold last year, uh, as all because we, uh, we sold it, we recycled the money I can buy for that money.
I can buy two. A size land and develop two instead of just one.
Okay.
But we are not selling anymore. We are just gonna keep it in a 10 million now.
Okay. And at what price did you sell that one for?
I think I've sold it for 39 million. So if you ask me what the best is, well something that costs you nothing and you get 1.6 clear in a pocket every year.
Yeah.
Or 20 something, 30 years.
Yeah.
And you sell for 39 million. You tell me what percentage that is.
Yeah. So that's infinity. So you got all your money back from selling the houses you built on there. And then you make all
the money and plus in the pocket.
Yeah. And every year all the rent from the
Yes.
And then
I
said 9 million. So you tell me what,
yeah, that's not bad, Peter. Uh, no, that's, that's amazing. So I've just written down a few notes here. So, um, Peter's transition from caravan parks to a similar business model, but with retirement villages and the, the similarities here acquire land at relatively low costs.
Increase the rental income by building the houses on them and leasing them out leasehold, and then holding the underlying land until it depreciates. And that seems to be the exactly the same business model with your retirement villages, is that right?
Well, usually I was a, I was a family man, and I, I was very unlucky.
I couldn't find the finance people that financed me. So I can, I can propel into big money. Real big money. Mm. Although I made big money. But it's not real big money in this. I, um, we buy the land and as the, as the developers buy land now, the land next door goes up and up and up and up. So I can only buy land what I can afford.
Mm-hmm. Don't forget I was establishing myself here, looking after my family in Europe, my wife's family in Europe, my, my family in Europe, sending my boys. So next thing is, next best thing was to go to Eagleby.
Mm-hmm.
Uh, you know what? Paul Keating calls that type of land, but I don't wanna repeat it here, but, uh, I, I thought that if I, I don't care where I buy it.
Mm-hmm.
I, I tell people if I buy land in St. Eagleby
mm-hmm.
Your suburb is not gonna call Eagleby anymore. Your sub will call Sapphire Gardens. How come I said, no, we rename, we are, we would rise to rename that part of Eagle Bee. We didn't, but as I said, we call it Phi Garden. It's a gated community. Nothing to do with Eagle Bee.
It's called Sapphire Gardens.
Mm-hmm.
So I said, I'll give you, I'll give you, don't forget, we provide the club. I bought a penthouse in surface.
Mm-hmm.
And my reside. In my village, my, uh, they got, they've got better facilities than the person that buys $20 million penthouse in service.
Mm. Mm-hmm.
See, we provide that much.
Now our clubhouses are 20, $30 million now.
Yeah. Right.
For the enjoyment. So tell us about the Eagleby
site. Um,
so I, uh, Peter Beatie went, uh, was elected labor government at that time. They didn't have the union, they didn't the bus schemes and everything. They've always, they always wanted money. And I, I need to work out because I come from labor government in Croatia, so they always need money.
And they were selling this house in Commissional Land, which residents in Eagleby didn't want it, didn't want them to build housing commission. So the auction sign was burned twice. And I said, well, this, I'm gonna buy this. I said, I'm gonna buy this because this is exactly what I'm looking for. So I went there to the agent, agent for the same business as me, and I tell, don't tell anybody what I'm buying it for.
He was my position. I didn't know.
Mm-hmm.
Anyway, and I said, offer them $200,000, 23 acres of land. He said, but the, but the land is valued at one point, uh, 1.1 million. I said, who valued the land? I'm trying to play dumb. Was it God's valuation or men? I said, we never value land back home. He said, no, it's men's.
I said, well, men put the valuation. Tell him it's only for 200 me, $200,000. He says, no way. No way. Anyway, I offered him 400. They wouldn't accept it. Then I said, asked. I said, I asked. The agent, asked him what? Would they take?
Mm-hmm.
And they, and they, the answer came anything over half a million.
Mm-hmm.
I said, okay, good.
I went to the news agency, got a a little book, taught a page, and I brought in my sc script in my English, my quote is, uh, $502,500. And I said, give it to them. And then about two, three weeks later, he says, Peter, he is accepted under one provision. Tell them why. Such a odd figure. 502,500. I said, look, if I said 550, you say it quick, you and forget that 50.
But if I say 500, two and 500, you stop and think and they all laugh at the government and I got it.
Okay. And when you buy that, it wasn't, uh, subject to a change of zoning or anything, you just bought it as is unconditional
contract Un unconditional. Was, was, was. Was meant to be housing commission. So I trained, I put it in the, uh, I put it into the, uh, gated community, uh, manufactured over, we call it over fifties resort.
Yes. Okay.
And, uh, and people were very happy around because, uh, they didn't want house in commission because they already crime. It's pretty. I used to, I used to tell them, I used to tell, I said, tell Mr. Beaty if I buy land in there, you need to sell me a gun. Actually, they're not, you know, poor people are good people.
Poor people are good people. Believe me. Popular are good people. You'll get my, you get a few, uh, people do no good and they, when good people, good people, because I, I was a poor, I was poor man too, and I think I was a good person.
Yeah, right. And, and, and your idea to scale that site. Uh, you were telling me in the car here that you ended up buying a couple of neighboring sites.
No, that was the first site. The first site I built 216 homes.
Okay.
Exactly the same home that I, the Embrel Gardens on the Gold Coast.
Yep.
And then when I bought this land, I brought my wife and I said, I didn't wanna tell her. She doesn't know what the Eagle Bee was like.
Mm-hmm.
I, she just said, looked like another, we come from S Paradise, she think just another service paradise.
And I said, this land across the road. I said, we gonna buy it. She said, yeah, yeah, let's buy it. Because we come very no land where we come from. So land to us is a, is a wealth.
Yes,
so, so I started negotiating with couple Australian agents. No good. Then Mr. Young Chinese put his sign and I negotiated that land from Ance.
I was visiting my son in Parramatta. He was living in Parramatta. Then he was a rep for Borrow.
Mm-hmm.
Uh, we were negotiating on that land from Severance Brothers to Paramatta in Paramount, I be the deal.
Mm-hmm.
He was asking 1.4 million. He said, that's how much cost him. I said, I don't care how much cost him.
I said, unless you can sell me a gun. Legal gun to defend myself. And anyway, I, he said 800, 10,000, 40 acres.
Yeah.
And then I bought another piece of land, uh, for 800,000, 20 acres because they, people know that I'm, I'm a builder. Mm-hmm. Land goes up.
Mm-hmm.
And I got 60. And then the, the government, uh, um, council at that time mm-hmm.
Uh, they said to me, we're gonna take six acres. Low lying area for Enve environment and give it to Queensland government.
Yeah.
Uh, and then I said, why? I said, well, that's it. He said, we want it, you gotta give it to us. So I had to, Andrew, I had to pay government valuer to value that part of land.
Mm-hmm.
Then I had to transfer it to the government and I had to pay, transferred same duties. On my own land.
Wow. And this is all part of the negotiation that developers do? Yes. If, if you didn't do that, they wouldn't have approved your change? No.
There was the black money, so they, I had to put $900,000 towards the, uh, uh, eagleby wetlands.
Mm-hmm.
How come all the Gold Coast builders have built thousands of units?
Yeah,
we don't, we haven't got a new road anyway except bundle road they built.
Yeah. I, I, I think there should be a report that should be sanctioned, uh, to show. The public people in Australia where all the government infrastructure charges has actually gone to Yeah, when they charge.
But, so this Eagle Bee deal, it ended up being a big multiple. You've bought multiple sites there. And tell me about, um, I mean I read, this may be wrong 'cause I've just Googled this. Um, today on the internet it says here in 2023. Living Gems sold the Eagle Bee Height site as part of a $210 million portfolio deal to Stockland.
Do those numbers sound right?
Yeah. Stockland, we stockland sold our Eagle Bee site, which is a third site.
Mm-hmm.
They didn't buy, they didn't buy these two sites.
Okay.
They bought the, uh, they bought the uh, um, Eagleby site, which was a brand new Eagleby site because we bought for, look, it's funny thing like we told the agent.
He had a buyer. Mm-hmm. And we said, we'll pay your commission now. Get rid of the buyer. We'll we'll pay your commission in 12 months. Land, settle in 12 months. We'll, Billy give you your commission straight away. The money, money speaks volumes, you know, money. He said, okay. We paid him. Uh, we got the land we assembled, we put more land because 10 million, we put 3 million into SAR to level it 'cause 13 million.
And we sold the land for $69 million. That land.
So purchase price, 13 million. Sold
not 10 million. Plus the 3 million with development, like with, with
Oh, for improving the cyber roads and civil works and things. So 13 to 69 million. How many years was that?
Uh, probably five years.
Five years?
Yes. So I think part of that land is now under, under, uh, Kuber connection.
Okay.
But that's all paid. They good.
Wow. That, that is, uh, that's just, uh. That's not a bad deal.
Well, it's excellent,
Peter. Like, I'm, uh, not, not, um, trying to put words in your mouth, but as a real estate agent or an investor, when I have a little win, sometimes I get back in my car and I go, yes. What do you do when you make.
Close to $60 million in a deal, do you go and get on the drink or do you celebrate or is it just relief that after years of work you've actually got a deal done?
Actually, Andrew, if, if my next door neighbor, my friend, or even people that I never met,
mm-hmm.
If I can see made 60, like from 13 to 69 million.
Mm-hmm.
It's a big money. You one doesn't become jealous, but like you say, oh my, you know, but it happened to me and just remember. Just remember I come from nothing. I came from nothing. In Europe. We were less than having nothing. Mm. Everything was negative.
Mm.
My house was leaking with no electricity. The biggest was a little cow and a donkey.
That's all my, and then you get six, nine and a chess
board.
Yeah. And a chess board. And then you get six, 9 million. And to be quite honest, you don't get hit hard. You know what? You still say eat the same steak?
Yeah.
You drive the good car. I mean, same car. Yeah. Yeah. You don't go nothing. Be it just, but if it happens to somebody else, you'll be dreaming.
How would you think you got, but then you got it and you do
nothing. Yeah, yeah.
Just because you're not money motivated. Mm-hmm.
If you
work hard.
Mm-hmm.
Uh, money. Means a lot, but doesn't mean as, as much as some as you think if something else makes it.
Yeah.
We just went on, went on and bought some more land and, and, and did, did the same thing.
Next. Next, so. This, uh, first part one of this podcast. We're not going into the public company a lot. We're just talking about living gems. How, how did you come up with the name Living Gems? It sounds like an emerald company, or stones or jewelry or something. What, how did that all come about?
Uh, well, we, I started the late eighties, early nineties, and I started, uh, what's known now as Emerald Gardens in Kumba.
Handful of kba and, uh, one Saturday night. Uh, Adrian. I know, uh, Vlad, my oldest boy, Vlad and his brother Bronco, that lives in Sian now, he, we were having a late night mother went to bed and I said to them, look, you're not going to a bad till you gimme a name. I said, I can build you a project. I need a name.
I need a, a good Aussie name. I said, nothing of ethnic name or anything. Gimme good and was caught to midnight. We are going for two hours arguing. I said, you're not going to bed at all. I said, you will. I said. I need a good name. And all of a sudden bro snapped up. He said, what about we call it, uh, Emerald Gardens?
I said, that's excellent. Said you can go to bed now. And that's how we started. Emerald Gardens. Sapphire Gardens, and, and now eMAR is by BLA said, leaving gems. And um, people asked me, do we straight in so, and said, no, not at all. We, we are our fifties resorts, but.
Okay. So, um, so we've, we've talked about the, uh, the business model there effectively where you, you're going out buying most of the time rural land that's not actually zoned for residential and you're getting an uplift.
You have your own team that does that. Uh, are all of the sites that you buy that way or some of them already approved for residential development?
Look, if it's, if the site is approved
mm-hmm.
You lose. You lose the, you lose the cream.
Mm-hmm.
Because some of really take a bit of a cream off.
Yeah.
The best is you, like you buy site.
Mm-hmm.
You get a buying agent. Buying agent look good. Real estate agent is a ticket to wealth.
Mm-hmm.
You'll never be too scared to pay good real estate, good money.
Mm-hmm.
I never heckled, I never tried to reduce the uh, uh, money to my real estate agent.
Mm.
I always will pay real estate agent like a good doctor.
Mm-hmm.
Do you gonna go and get a cheaper doctor or you get a good doctor?
Mm-hmm.
Uh, if you've got a good real estate agent, you pay him the money.
Mm-hmm.
You even pay more. I say to him, I'll, I will say like, if you got a good land, I'm telling you now, if you get me good land, I'll pay you. And if you got, if you can charge the seller, yes.
But they'll pay you because. You are, you are, uh, uh, you, you are my ticket to my wealth.
Mm-hmm.
You get me good land, you can sell the good land to anyone.
Mm-hmm.
If you choose to sell it to me, I'll pay you on time. I'll even pay you before the land settlers.
Mm-hmm.
Because by looking after you, I'm looking after myself.
Mm-hmm.
And, and, and I never, ever, ever, uh, try to minimize and try to cut real estate agent, or would I go behind your back and negotiate with the owner? No. You know what? The little money that you can save, you lose big money at the end.
Yeah.
So you always get good people work for you. If you're good people, you got a ticket to make money.
Mm-hmm.
Bad people is a short, short.
Yeah. I can verify what Peter's saying there. Um, Peter and I have a joint friend who's also a real estate agent, and Peter and his son bought this other real estate agent as well as his commission. They bought him a brand new BMW just from one deal that he referred.
And Phil the GLO box's full of cash.
Did you
Full cash? Yeah, we build, we said we'll build you, we, we will fill the glovebox full of cash. 'cause he got us a good deal.
Oh, that's unbelievable. So
that's on top of his commission?
Yeah. On top of his commission,
yeah.
Wow. Peter, the, um, people who buy your homes and your villages.
I, I, this might be incorrect as well. I just googled this this morning. It said that the retirees don't pay any stamp duty. Is that right or not?
Our, our our type of, uh, business is over fifties. Resort is, there's no, uh, there, no, no exit fees, no same duties. Mm-hmm. And, uh, you, you look after your. A house on, on my land, which you lease, which is Act of Parliament.
Mm-hmm. It like, it's guaranteed you stay there.
Yep.
And when you sell your house or you sell your house, it same as you sell your house, run runaway by.
Yep.
You keep all the profits.
Yep.
We don't tell you, uh, you don't have to upgrade anything because you really buy your house of me in other business, which I don't wanna mention here.
Mm.
You only give million dollars to lay stay in their house. So when you move out. They renovate everything and they charge you.
Mm-hmm.
In this case here, you, you, we just wanna make sure that you got a, that your house had to look outside. Has to look nice. Yeah. Although we got a right to ever look inside, which we never do.
Mm-hmm.
We trust our people are good people.
Mm-hmm.
But we don't, we just want your house to, uh, be a good value for everybody else as we painted it on time.
Mm-hmm.
Which we, which we are not strict. We don't force people at all.
Mm-hmm.
And, um, and you keep all your money.
Mm-hmm.
You sell your house to us if you want.
Mm-hmm.
Because we your best because people, we got, we got constant, we got manager on site constantly and people got register. If you've got a good house, let me know. So, but you are, are allowed to sell to whoever you want.
Mm-hmm.
Or pass the house, whoever you want.
Okay. So just reiterate for the viewers.
The business model is similar to the caravan park model. Peter's businesses buy the land, generally rurally zone. They'll get an uplift in value through a town planning process to residential land. Then they'll make money building beautiful homes and selling the homes to the residents. But they actually keep the land.
The residents pay rent and the land goes up over time.
No, we call a side fee. What happens is, like you, you, you only do upkeep on your home.
Mm-hmm.
And the only, and we give you, every house has got, uh, solar. So your solar, uh, is much less than my soil. My, uh, e if you live across the road
Yep.
And, and you get the annual price of your home.
You, we, we give, provide you solar that you. Some people are negative because they got a, a rebate.
Yep.
But don't forget.
Mm-hmm.
Andrew, don't forget, uh, like we've just built a clubhouse in ra. Uh, no. Here Ellenville. He said, Helen's outta here. Just by, by. After Dreamworld the new, we go coast, gold Coast. Yeah.
Yeah.
Uh, we built a clubhouse, 5,000 square meters of clubhouse.
Wow.
$35 million.
Yeah. Wow.
So you tell me you buy a house for $800,000
Mm.
And your clubhouse. Is 800,000 bucks cost you nothing. Yeah. We, as the owners of the resort, we only owners in a, in a sense of that we have gotta maintain it and you pay us, uh uh, you don't pay any council fees.
Yeah.
We get discount on a bulk. So you enjoy, we, we have to make sure that all your club, all your, uh, outside areas are nice and clean. Everything is, everything is good. Everything is working and everything and everything. And we, and you live like a real millionaire. I like you. Can people in s fathers that buy a penthouse
mm-hmm.
That would not have one quarter of facilities.
Yeah.
Uh, and you pay millions what these people have. So you transform the paid people with the little means. To make him really proud. Mm-hmm. And that's where the success is.
Okay, Peter, I wanna read another newspaper article, just a, a short, uh, clip of it that I Googled also yesterday.
Preparing for today. Can you just listen to this? Living Gems Divested all 13 established communities and sites for $495 million in deals with Stockland and Avid Property Group in 2023 and 24. Now, um, one of your sons, Anthony is the CEO of that business, and he's also quoted in the newspaper, right? I'm getting off the money side of it here.
The values my father instilled of delivering high quality homes and a lifestyle that second to none remain. He pioneered over fifties lifestyle resorts and continually raise the bar in their design. And that's a leg legacy will continue to uphold. How do you feel as a father knowing you've got two sons running, two massive businesses, you've paved the platform for them, they're following in your footsteps, and I can just feel the respect.
Of your children in their comments there. How does that make you feel?
Well, they put that in the papers. So when you go there, they said, dad dead. Leave us. Well, you don't know much, but they're like every other kid. But look, they're good. Anthony's a periodontist. He just, I just financed him three years.
Full Three years. Yeah. I said, Levi's, um, surgical tools to go, go to uni. He become a period. Then I said to him, look, uh, drop that off.
Mm-hmm.
Come and be a CEO. You'll, you'll make. Reasonable money, if not more. Mm-hmm. But your life lifestyle is much better. You can spend more time with your money, with your family and everything.
So he is very happy.
Mm-hmm.
Uh, he's a special Adrian, he's a lawyer.
Mm-hmm.
Even in his master's degree, and he's a, and, and, and work very hard.
Mm-hmm.
They, um, look, I don't wanna go and compete against my sons. I let them run it.
Mm-hmm.
I let them run it so I'm not. I know exactly what, what it needs. Like you give me a valley or land and I can, I can, I can design the city, I can design it with people, of course, design it.
I can, uh, uh, um, build it for you. Mm-hmm. I can make sure nothing's subsiding, nothing's leaking, I'm gonna do everything. See, but then I say what for? Before. I've got two sons. They're educated.
Yeah.
They speak proper English. They're natives here. Yeah. So I, I stay back and play chess with you and John Peso every Wednesday, and I lose occasionally too.
Just, uh, following up that newspaper article, living Gems Divested 13 established Communities for 495 and 2020 3 24. But that company, that private company is added again now. Like if it, it, I also Google here you've got a. Anthony's got a $210 million 295 home project in Townsville. $360 million project in Parkhurst Rockhampton with 505 homes, another $140 million project in the Morton Bay with a hundred and.
86 homes, that's, uh, another $710 million of over a thousand homes that you are looking to build just in that private company.
Andrew, look, we, uh, living Gem, we, we've sold the business, but we kept, we never sell Living Gems. Living Gems to us is like a pool name. We never sell your name.
Yeah.
So we got the living gym's got three land there to build three and a half thousand new homes.
Okay.
We got 550 in, in, um, Lismore. Which one? That doesn't flood suburb before one. That doesn't flood. Okay. High up. We've got another site, three 50 in, uh, in Dr. Campton, uh, which is, uh, we just there building a bridge, the developer's building a bridge and we will go in, uh, end of this year, next year in there.
Mm-hmm.
We've got also, uh, we've got 300 homes or 270 homes in Calandra.
Mm-hmm.
You go to Harvard. Just nice spot there. It's just approved the other day.
Yep.
Then we got another, we got a thousand homes in Tomba and I think we got some site in Melbourne, which I haven't seen yet.
Mm-hmm.
So, uh, we, um, we got three, we got, we sold two and a half something thousand, land for two something, but we will go and build three and a half thousand.
Mm-hmm.
And we'll buy more land.
Mm-hmm.
And that's all from the process. Like I've, that gives free, that gives me freedom. To distribute some of the family wealth to my sons so they can be independent. Not waiting. I've was saying, don't bring your wifes here and your kids and look at my eyes. See how much more I've got to go is your money.
And go, don't look at me. I can leave. I'll leave forever. So look, they are independent. They've got their own money, but we are gonna go together now. I'm a partner now with them.
Mm-hmm.
We gonna develop more because that's what we know and that's what we, we look where do you find investment? But you get all your money back.
Mm-hmm.
And you do, and we value, we respect our, we respect our, um, buyers, our, our clients, because they're my ambassadors. We got, we got buyer agents. I think you should become a buyer's agent for us. We pay good money for our, our agents, because don't forget, agents can sell block land to Inman wants.
Mm-hmm. We'll sell to people that, that give him a good name too. That, that like, uh. People that pay on time. People that do a good job. Yeah. And people that, everything's good. Good. Everything. So we need, we need agents, we need buyer's agent. Actually we've got agents now, we've given agent, uh, um, it's a lady and she's got a business partner in our office.
Yeah.
They are. We, I don't think we charging them rent. They're, they, they're looking for something for us
Acquisitions people. Yeah.
Yeah. They're doing, they're doing bits and pieces for us because we are now
mm-hmm.
We, we bought some, uh, some land in, um. Kana, end of the Ethiopia Drive, we're gonna build the office there.
Mm-hmm.
And, um, so with agents, uh, a ticket to wealth
Yep.
You need them. And they need us because we pay straight away.
Yep.
So everything is, everybody wants to be associated with the, with the respectful people and people that will pay you on time and no heckling. Uh, can you charge this and this, whatever.
Yeah. You like, we, we pay because we are gonna get our money back anyway.
Okay. Our viewers, so this podcast is about property education. It's probably fair to say that most of the, uh, business model that Peter and his family have done is, is not easily duplicatable. But what we can all learn from is Peter's mindset.
His hard work ethic and the consistency, what, four decades you've been?
Well, I've
working hard
actually, on Monday. On Monday I was, uh, 58 years in Australia.
Yeah, right.
This my Monday. There we go. Yeah. 58 years. And I've been in. In construction probably for 57 years.
Okay.
I've working for myself for probably 54 years for myself.
Wow.
And the, the success is hard work.
Mm-hmm.
And smart.
Yep.
And honest.
Yep.
And honest honesty is everything in business.
Mm-hmm.
If you honest, if you've got a good name
mm-hmm.
People trust you, you succeed.
Yeah.
Don't go and make all money overnight, like, just like this, just move slow. Mm-hmm. Even if you make little money, as long as you're not going backwards.
That's a positive.
Yeah.
And then it comes in a big, big, big bundle. 'cause you're not competing against, uh, uh, Alan Bonds and you're not competing against Elon Musk. You're competing against ordinary people.
Yeah.
And all, all you gotta do is just, just fought with the hard and you succeed.
Yeah.
You don't have to be the best, as long as you're happy.
Yeah. Thank you very much Peter. So we're just gonna take a break and, um, we're gonna come back to part two to discuss the next level of Peter's journey with the other company, which is, uh. Gem Life, which was the last largest listing on the Australian Stock Exchange last year in 2025 as a precursor, just to motivate you to hang around and listen to part two.
I'll read another article here from the newspaper. A retirement living business that grew from a trailer park on Queensland's Gold Coast has made a healthy landing on the Australian Stock Exchange, handing a father and son a $417 million payday. As part of the IPO, gem Life has agreed to buy the pulitz family's Elyria portfolio of eight communities for 270.3 million.
The family will retain a 26.7% chunk of the listed company, giving them a combined windfall of $417 million. Gem Life will control 32 communities and have a development pipeline of 9,836 home sites. Across Australia. That's probably over 10,000 now. You don't want to miss part two. Thanks for listening.
Pass this podcast on to anyone you know who is interested in property development or the success story of an immigrant that came to Australia. Without the ability to speak English very well without a lot of money and has done very, very well and built an empire. Thanks, Peter. We'll, we'll join you back shortly for part two.
Thank you, Andrew.
Thanks for listening to the Andrew Wright Property podcast. This is all about building a community of like-minded investors who can share real life stories, experiences, and collaborate with a view to helping each other join us. Get in touch through the link in the show notes. I look forward to you joining me on the next episode.