Following recent wins in the Master Builders Awards for three of their country clubs, we reached out to Vlad for more insights into the family-owned operator which was set up by builder father Peter Puljich in 1982.
They now have eight over-50’s master-planned communities across Queensland and in 2015, announced a new venture with Singaporean property developer Thakral known as ‘GemLife’ which now has three sites in operation – two in Queensland at Highfields in Toowoomba and Bribie Island and a third in Woodend in Victoria which is experiencing “prolific sales” according to Vlad.
“The Queensland market is much more competitive with higher quality product up here,” he said. “There is room for growth in Victoria for higher quality products that looks and feels like a house.”
The typical Living Gems home priced between $350,000 and $400,000 with the higher priced homes around $600,000.
GemLife has also been prolific in acquiring new sites – they now have six under contract and several more well advanced in Queensland, Victoria and NSW with around 3,000 homes in their development pipeline – and once Living Gems has wrapped up its remaining few sites in development, they plan to focus exclusively on the GemLife partnership.
While he says the village and land lease sector cater to different markets, he says the DMF model is flawed. “People should be able to make capital gains on home if the market is booming,” he said.
“Our product also doesn’t necessarily depreciate so you can leave something to your children.”
They have the sales to back them up on this. Living Gems sells around 150 to 170 houses per year while GemLife sells at least 300 with premium sites such as Bribie Island “running out the door”.
But Vlad tells us that they are not looking to go down the same care path as fellow LLC operators Palm Lake Resort and Ingenia.
“We’re happy staying in our core field,” he said. “We have no aspirations to be an aged care operator.”
GemLife does have a partnership with QLD Not For Profit PresCare to provide home care services into its communities and Mr Puljich acknowledges that they have some long-time residents that they would like to continue to house as they get older.
And does he believe Ingenia Chairman’s Jim Hazel’s prediction that land lease communities will overtake retirement villages in the next five years? He says they are gaining ground quickly.
“Our competitors are good for us,” he says. “We like being in a competitive market. It helps finetune our market and industry stability and the heavy government regulation is a bonus for our homeowners.”
Food for thought.
