Mirvac Rounds Out 15 Years of Pimpama Development

After 15 years of development, Mirvac has wrapped up construction on a 2000-home masterplanned estate that helped spark the rapid expansion of one of Queensland’s fastest-growing suburbs, Pimpama.

The project, midway between Brisbane and the Gold Coast, has been instrumental in transforming the coastal city’s northern growth corridor.

Known as Gainsborough Greens, the house and land development is now home to more than 5000 residents in homes built among 173ha of conservation area and koala habitat.

Mirvac general manager of residential development in Queensland Warwick Bible said the sold-out project had been popular due its green focus, with the developer providing 32ha of parklands, 33ha of westlands and more than 13km of walking and cycle trails.

“We focused on delivering key amenities, such as the first parkland, early on so new residents could get a sense of what it would become,” Bible said.

“Every home is within a five-minute walk of a park or greenspace.

“Mirvac has developed a total of seven parks, including our flagship Bim’bimba Park, which is now a destination for residents from across the northern Gold Coast and further afield.”

Bim’bimba Park was created by landscape contractors Naturform in partnership with Form Landscape Architects. It was constructed using predominantly recycled materials.

▲ Mirvac general manager of residential development Queensland Warwick Bible. Image: Supplied

Mirvac invested $13 million in its display village for the project and by mid-2016 had completed more than 400 homes.

At the height of its development, between 2016 and 2017, Mirvac settled more than 400 homesites.

The final homesite is now due to settle in December.

“Gainsborough Greens has appealed to first-home buyers and families, through to downsizers, because of its focus on greenspace,” Bible said.

“As well as this, buyers have been drawn to the estate’s relative affordability and location—in commuting distance of the Gold Coast and Brisbane.”

Once known for its farm produce, Pimpama is now a hive of development activity.

The Gold Coast is one of Queensland's fastest-growing regions with its population increasing from 500,000 to almost 600,000 residents in the past decade.

Between 2011 and 2016, the population in the northern suburbs jumped by 31 per cent to more than 74,000 people after the construction of sprawling housing estates.

▲ The development is next to an existing 18-hole golf course. Image: Mirvac

With an additional 350,000 new residents expected by 2041, planners have estimated at least 31,000 new homes would be needed on greenfield sites, with the region’s north doing the heavy lifting.

For Mirvac, the completion of Gainsborough Greens follows a relatively strong financial year, posting an 8 per cent increase in operating profit after tax of $596 million as revenue surged 27.5 per cent to $2.3 billion. 

Continued demand for residential housing translated to strong results for Mirvac’s master-planned communities’ portfolio, with gross margins of 25 per cent well up on the target of between 18 and 22 per cent.

The developer settled 2523 residential lots across the recent financial year, beating its 2500-lot settlement target.

Mirvac has also been trailing a new prefabrication model to cut build time by almost 25 per cent and reduce labour hours by 11 per cent for its new townhouse and residential construction portfolio.

The developer started putting prefabricated bathroom pods in its apartments years ago and it had taken five years to refine the process and products to the level where they have now become a standard feature.

The company is now aiming to combine prefabricated walls, floors and bathrooms at its 300-home Riverlands project in Sydney to maximise the work done in the controlled environment of a factory and reduce on-site construction.