Aliria Cotswold Hills: Construction to start on two Toowoomba over-50s resorts worth $360m by Adrian Puljich

Two new housing projects in Toowoomba’s western corridor, being spearheaded by one of the state’s top developers, could unlock more than 400 homes across the city. Here’s why.

Indicative overviews of Aliria Cotswold Hills and Cotswold Rise just outside Toowoomba.

One of Queensland’s most prominent retirement village developers will start construction within months on the first of two new over-50s communities in Toowoomba, worth more than $360m and nearly 420 homes once completed.

Adrian Puljich’s newest family-owned venture Aliria has received council approval for the two new projects, called Cotswold Hills and Cotswold Rise, on adjoining parcels in the city’s western corridor.

It will potentially represent a major indirect boost to housing in Toowoomba, with older residents now able to move out of their existing private dwellings to into the villages on a land-lease arrangement.

Indicative overviews of Aliria Cotswold Rise just outside Toowoomba.

Each masterplanned community will feature their own shared facilities totalling $15m, including two country clubs complete with a range of amenities.

Like other land-lease developments, residents will own their own house but not the underlying land, paying a monthly maintenance fee to Aliria but not council rates or state taxes like stamp duty.

The $179m Aliria Cotswold Hills and its 205 homes will start construction in September, with the more elevated Cotswold Rise ($183m, 211 houses) due to begin work early next year.

The developments, which cover more than 24ha, will replace previous plans laid out by Victoria company retirement resort specialist Country Club Living (CCL) several years ago before deciding not to proceed.

Aerial views of the land that will become Aliria Cotswold Hills outside Toowoomba.

Those plans included a nine-hole private golf course, which faced some challenges getting through the Toowoomba Regional Council.

Aliria national development manager Darren McKenzie said since CCL had completed much of the required earthworks for what has become Cotswold Hills, it allowed the company to then snap up the neighbouring lot (to become Cotswold Rise).

Indicative art of housing in Aliria Cotswold Hills outside Toowoomba, which will start construction in September 2025 after securing council approval several months ago.

“That had a balanced piece of land over the other side of the drainage corridor that had some latent value, and that latent value was there was an elevated site but you couldn’t use it as part of a (land-lease) operation because it was separated by a drainage reserve,” he said.

“So we subsequently bought that block of land directly adjacent to it and amalgamated that block of land so we could do two parks, with the view that we could do the first one and then later once we finished that we could do the more elevated development (Cotswold Rise).

“We leveraged off the good works that (CCL had) done, so for us it was fully serviced with access to the road and all of those benefits that can take a while to get through council (were done).

“It saves us about 12 months of physical work.”

While these will be the first Aliria developments in the Toowoomba region, Mr Puljich’s other venture GemLife is currently developing two new over-50s communities in Highfields.

Mr McKenzie said Toowoomba’s ageing population represented a major opportunity for the retirement resort development industry, with Mr Puljich leading from the front.

“GemLife at the time had determined that it wasn’t going to do further activity in the land-lease space and do further acquisition, so this is Adrian’s private entity to keep growing that greenfields portfolio,” he said.

“Adrian has got a huge vision in the area, — with the new hospital coming in and all of the growth expected in Cotswold Hills and us being an established player under a different brand (GemLife), we just identified that that has been a growth opportunity and a great location to launch the Aliria brand in the Toowoomba region.”

Aliria director and majority owner Adrian Pujlich.

For his part, Mr Puljich said Toowoomba residents were already showing an interest in downsizing to a smaller home to take advantage of the numerous shared amenities that over-50s resorts offered.

“All homes across both new resorts in Cotswold Hills are designed for low maintenance, so residents can spend less time on the upkeep of their property and more time on the things they enjoy,” he said.

“Accessing those things is also made easy, with extensive community amenities on site. We find most residents take-up a new sport or hobby when they move in, whether that is lawn bowls, pickleball, swimming, virtual golf, yoga, craft or dancing — there are so many options.”

For more information about both projects, head to the Aliria website.

Originally published as Aliria Cotswold Hills: Construction to start on two Toowoomba over-50s resorts worth $360m by Adrian Puljich