Property sharks circling Cronin Island's controversial listing

The Alex Povov-designed Gold Coast mansion recently sold by Queensland fund manager Mark McIvor to the NSW truckie Gary Fulton failed to sell at weekend auction, with its $2 million top offer almost $5 million below its sale price earlier this year.

It was officially passed in on a $5.5 million vendor bid by Coldwell Banker agent Alex Caraco.

Mr McIvor, founder of failed fund manager Equititrust, lost the property to receivers, who sold it in January this year for $6.75 million.

The sale, to New South Wales truckie Gary Fulton, raised eyebrows in the Gold Coast's depressed real estate market, as it was a sizable rise on the $4.55 million top bid at its unsuccessful 2011 auction.

In recent months the Commonwealth Bank sought to repossess the home, launching Supreme Court action against Fulton company Vitago.

Agent Alex Caraco advised the local Gold Coast Bulletin that the court action against Vitago was "in abeyance'' and the truckie's company – not the bank – was currently selling the mansion.

He says there was a $5.95 million asking price, with genuine interest "from a gentleman from Melbourne, a lady in Hong Kong and a doctor in Sydney''.

Caraco suggests some other interested parties are using the controversy attached to the property to try to get a bargain.

"It's a landmark property – the land value alone is $2.6 million – and it's worth something with a five (million) in front of it,'' he says.

The Gold Coast prestige property market was starting to make a "slow recovery'', Caraco told The Bulletin.