Glaring issue with 3,676 new land lease homes in Bundaberg’s coastal suburbs

18 retirement and lifestyle developments worth hundreds of millions of dollars have been approved in the past 12 months in the area – but none of them include aged care beds.

Developers have zeroed in on Bundaberg’s coastal suburbs – Bargara, Burnett Heads, Coral Cove, Elliott Heads, Innes Park and Kalkie – in a region that has Australia’s second-highest population of over-65s.

Bundaberg Regional Council has signed off on a string of major projects, including:

• In September, Vivacity Property broke ground on a $320M lifestyle community in Coral Cove.
• In August, GemLife unveiled plans for a 437-home land lease community at Burnett Heads.
• In July, Telegraph Road Developments Pty Ltd secured approval for an 18-stage, 386 manufactured home estate in Kalkie.
• In January, Liven Communities announced it had purchased land at Elliott Heads, with approval already in place for 328 homes.

In addition, The Weekly SOURCE reported in September that Palm Lake Resort Bargara had received approval for another 138 homes, taking the community close to 800 homes in total.

More projects are in the pipeline. Under consideration are:

• A 207-home lifestyle resort at DevCore’s Coral Cove Ocean Estate, with a development application lodged by Lincoln Place this month.
• A 301-home manufactured housing estate at Innes Park, lodged by Saunders Havill Group on behalf of Macquarie Asset Management’s Millbray.
• Stockwell Development Group’s plans for a new 403-home Solana Lifestyle Resort at Bargara.

These will sit alongside established coastal communities including Ingenia Lifestyle Drift, Bargara (launched September 2023); RetireAustralia’s Caryle Gardens Retirement Village in Bargara (under extension in November 2024); and RV Lifestyle Village Oceanside at Burnett Heads.

Yet despite the surge in land lease and retirement living approvals – representing 3,676 new homes – Bundaberg Regional Council has not received a single development application for a new aged care home, nor have any been included within the recently approved manufactured housing projects.

This comes after Council decided in May to exit the provision of home care services, further tightening support options for older residents.

“We certainly do need more nursing home developments … it is one of the things that I do talk to investors and developers about,” Mayor Helen Blackburn said.

“Everything from student accommodation all the way through to nursing homes and increasing the size of our cemeteries — we need to be looking after everyone, right from the beginning all the way through to the end.”