[1][2] In 1980 he went on holiday to Brisbane, Australia, and decided to make a trip to the Gold Coast during his visit and after returning to Austria he immediately made arrangements to immigrate to the city with his family.
[5] In 1983 Abedian founded the Sunland Group company with his friend Foad Fathi and they began constructing luxury homes.
"[11]In June 2001 Abedian decided to construct the 78 storey Q1 Tower as Sunland's next major project as a joint venture with GWA Ltd's Anderson family which was completed in 2005.
[12] In 2006 a Queensland Crime and Misconduct Commission report revealed Abedian had made improper hidden donations in order to gain political favors during the 2004 Gold Coast Council election.
[13][14] In May 2006 his son, Sahba, now managing director of the company, announced that the Sunland Group would not make any more donations to individual councillors of the Gold Coast City Council after the reports release.
[15] In March 2006 Abedian met with James Packer who bought a 13.04 percent stake in the Sunland Group and joined the companies Board of Directors.
[19][20] Before the Victorian Supreme Court Abedian agreed that a bribery investigation into a senior executive would be market sensitive information but denied that any deceit had taken place and the judge commented: “Whilst Soheil denied his alleged ignorance of Brown being under investigation for bribery was to justify the ASX announcement, his denial cannot be considered an honest answer,".
[22] In 2010 a shareholder criticized Sunland's global diversification program for not expanding beyond Dubai and Abedian responded by saying: "I’m really pissed off, I’m going to speak in Persian because my English is obviously not good enough ...
[17] Legal proceedings regarding the 2007 Dubai property deal continued in both Australian and Dubai courts with Sunland accusing employees of the company Nakheel of misleading them however in June 2012 the case was dismissed in the Supreme Court of Victoria with the judge describing Sunland's case as a fabrication stating that it was "simply implausible", that documents had been fabricated, and describing Abedian as a "consistently uncooperative witness".
Gold Coast mayor Ron Clarke dismissed Abedian's concerns noting he had not lived in the city for some time.
[34] In 2012 a talk given by Joe Hockey and Tim Nicholls which was related to Liberal National Party fundraising vehicle Platinum Circle was hosted at Sunland's Palazzo Versace Hotel on the Gold Coast and in 2013 Abedian personally donated $3500 to Liberal National Party fundraising vehicle Platinum Circle,[35] although in 2015 he publicly criticized the Tony Abbott governments tax policy calling for personal tax rates for those earning under $50,000 to be dropped to zero and for those earning over $1 million to be taxed at seventy-five percent.
[42] Media reports also raised the fact Abedian had made thousands of dollars in personal donations to the Liberal Party prior to Robert advising the Gold Coast City Council to support the Sunland development.
[43] In 2017 Abedian criticized the Queensland state Labor government for not approving the project saying:"I hope one day our elected representatives put the party politics aside and think about how best they can serve the people.
[51] In January 2021 one of Sunland's sites was sold to the Arium Group, a company in which Abedian held an indirect interest and his son Sahba held a major interest,[52] and in February it was reported that Abedian was already engaged in private property development in Miami through the private company Pacific Development Corporation which he co-owned with his son, Sahba, and daughter, Mona.
[54] The same month he was also awarded an Order of Australia Medal as part of the Queen's Birthday Honours for his service to the community and property development sector.
[55] In October 2021 the Sunland Group sold its last major project and announced it was winding down in 2023 and Abedian declined to comment on his future plans stating:“What will happen in the future we cannot talk about until we finish this chapter and hopefully another chapter will begin,”[56]Abedian is a member of the Baháʼí Faith and has delivered talks on the religion,[57] and serves as a member of the Spiritual Assembly of the Gold Coast.
[70] The company the Australian Residential Corporation is co-owned by Soheil, his children Sahba and Mona, his stepson Tom, and his nephew Khian.