INTERVIEW
INTERVIEW - JIM LI:
From management rights to taming the dragon By Grantlee Kieza, Industry Reporter
Architect Jim Li spent six years running the Lincoln Green residential complex at Eagleby, a suburb in the City of Logan, just south of Brisbane. After many early struggles, he reaped a bonanza there, and he is now hoping for a bountiful harvest running his 25-hectare dragon fruit farm. He says his first year in management rights was “hell” and his introduction to farming was even tougher. He lost 80 percent of his crop in the recent floods yet was determined to keep his pledge to support sick kids.
He lost 80 percent of his crop in the recent floods yet was determined to keep his pledge to support sick kids With help from Paul Shih, the CEO of PRET Australia (Professional Real Estate Training Pty Ltd) who taught Jim the business of management rights, and some of the PRET students, Jim still donated 2000kg of fruit in March to raise $10,000 for various charities including the Children’s Hospitals Foundation. Dragon fruit was introduced to Queensland in the 1970s and commercial production also takes place in the Northern
Territory, Western Australia and northern New South Wales. Jim knew very little about growing the fruit when he started, but just like his successful foray into management rights, he had to learn quickly. “My first year in management rights was hell,” Mr Li told Resort News, “but I eventually turned Lincoln Green into a good business. Dragon fruit farming is much tougher than I thought, but it is very interesting, and I am learning quickly.” Jim
was born in China but was raised and educated in Australia. “After I finished high school, I studied for two degrees and the second of them was in architecture,” Mr Li said. “I moved back to Shanghai to work as an architect there. But I felt it was not really the place for my family, so my wife and I decided to come back to Brisbane after a year, and we thought we would get into the business of management rights. “We contacted a local agent who was in the management rights industry, and he showed us three businesses. We chose the third one, the managed complex Lincoln Green, and we got into the business very quickly in May 2013. “But it was a nightmare.”
Jim Li farming dragon fruit. Image Supplied.
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MANAGEMENT
ResortNews | June 2022
