Subdivision Go Ahead Unlocks ‘Rare’ Gold Coast Greenfield Precinct

One of the Gold Coast’s few remaining greenfield development precincts has been unlocked as the big squeeze continues within the fast-growing glitter strip’s constrained urban growth boundaries.

Developer HB Land has been given the nod by the Gold Coast City Council for a 196-lot residential subdivision at Upper Coomera in the city’s north.

It is earmarked for an amalgamation of five rural properties spanning a combined 18.85ha acquired in December 2021 from Gallery Group by the subsidiary of Singapore-based Ho Bee Land.

The initial development application was lodged several years ago and remained in limbo pending city plan amendments being endorsed by the Queensland government.

Led by the council, the precinct was identified as an urban release area more than a decade ago, and rezoning of the land from rural to residential was undertaken.

“This is the first DA to be approved in the Courtney Drive precinct, which ultimately should yield approximately 700 dwellings,” HB Land national development director Peter Johnson said.

“We believe it’s a rare opportunity because there won’t be that many more behind it down the track or anytime soon. 

“Greenfield land is dwindling … [and] demand is just massively outstripping supply and has been for a while and will do for the foreseeable future.

“So we’re expecting reasonably strong uptake when we come to launch the project later this year.”

According to a recently released industry-led report entitled Gold Coast Dwelling Supply Study, under its existing urban footprint the city was forecast to run out of developable land in just over a decade.

The analysis was prepared by Zone Planning Group, BIOME Consulting, Matusik Property Insights and Zone Landscape Architecture.

It indicated, based on the application of current planning controls, the Gold Coast’s few remaining greenfield sites could only viably deliver an additional 17,564 homes by 2041—well short of the benchmark of 19,212 homes set in the draft SEQ Regional Plan.

But property analyst Michael Matusik warned only about half of the report’s estimate, or 10,542 homes, had a “high chance of being developed”.

▲ The approved 196-lot residential subdivision at Courtney Drive, Upper Coomera.

“Based on that forecast, the Gold Coast expansion area provides just 10.5 years of dwelling supply based on historical demand,” he said.

Matusik said further analysis showed the situation was even more dire for the Gold Coast’s low-density housing supply.

Of the dwellings with a high chance of being developed by 2041, it was estimated the existing expansion area was likely to yield 4808 house-and-land products and 5734 high-density dwellings.

“Based on these high-chance figures and the annual average dwelling demand for new housing stock over the past 10 years, the Gold Coast expansion area provides approximately 6.3 years of supply,” he said.

“Significantly, with the increased demand for detached housing stock, those of 25 dwellings per hectare or less, there is less than four years of supply of land remaining within the Gold Coast expansion area.”

Overall, Coomera would provide the majority (44 per cent) of the city’s dwelling supply, the study found. 

HB Land’s Peter Johnson said dirt would be turned on the 60-lot first stage of its Upper Coomera subdivision in the Courtney Drive precinct later this year, with a view to the first titles being in place by the third quarter of 2024.

Lot sizes would range from 400sq m to 1300sq m and the plans also included 4627sq m of public parkland and the rehabilitation of 2.69ha of environmental reserve.

“It’s incredibly well positioned,” Johnson said. “It has got all the existing schools, amenities, employment and green spaces around it and it's in the northern Gold Coast, which is quite a tightly held area. So we’re expecting a lot of upgraders from surrounding areas.”