The Gold Coast might have shed the “God’s waiting room” tag, but it hasn’t lost its pull with older Australians – with the “grey dollar” now worth more than $3.5 billion to the local economy and the city on track to hit one million residents.

Urbis Director Paul Riga says that momentum should be a siren call for retirement village and land lease operators.

“Queensland has the highest growth in people over 55 over the next two decades and greater Brisbane and the rest of the state show the highest propensity to live in retirement and land lease housing across Australia,” he said.

Unlike traditional residential purchases, he noted, retirement decisions are driven by lifestyle – community, safety and security – rather than pure price or yield.

Paul sees especially strong scope for purpose-built vertical retirement and independent living on the Coast as well-located land becomes scarce. The land lease/manufactured home segment is already well-established; the opportunity now is higher-density formats close to services, transport and beaches.

The development pipeline backs him up. DCM Group’s villages.com.au lists 67 retirement living and lifestyle resorts across the Gold Coast, with multiple new projects approved or under assessment including:

• Reside Communities – Esperance Hope Island: work underway on the third tower.
• GemLife: building a $200 million community at Pimpama; approval for a low-rise vertical land lease project at Currumbin Waters.
• Esprit de Vie: plans lodged for two vertical retirement towers at Runaway Bay.
• Odyssey Lifestyle Care Communities (with O'Neill Architecture): green light for 13-storey twin towers on Hope Island (188 apartments with penthouses and 23 aged care suites); 19-storey Chevron Island building has topped out; plus the purchase of land in Cru Collective’s $2 billion waterfront master planned estate in Burleigh Waters.
• Eureka Group Holdings: approval to replace Pioneer Place (21-unit Over-55s rental community) with an 11-storey, 153-unit seniors tower.