GemLife starts construction on $250m Highfields Heights retirement resort north of Toowoomba

One of Queensland’s top retirement resort developers has reached a key stage with its newest Toowoomba project, which includes space for more than 360 homes.

Toowoomba’s newest retirement village will include a $12m country club, multistorey living options and 3.5 hectares of bushland area.

Civil works have started on over-50s precinct developer GemLife’s latest $250m project Highfields Heights off Woolmer Road.

Once completed, the 23-hectare site will accommodate more than 360 homes along with a range of community amenities in an industry-standard land lease arrangement.

Those common assets includes massive “barnhouse-inspired” country club featuring a pool, ten-pin bowling, gym, cinema, cafe, arts studio, lawn bowls and virtual golf.

GemLife hopes to complete the first 23 homes, which were released to the market this month, by the middle of next year.

Concept art for GemLife's new Highfields Heights over-50s retirement resort, which is currently under construction.

Company director and chief executive Adrian Puljich said the undulating territory of the site gave the developer a chance to offer different living options compared to its previous Highfields project, which sits adjacent to the new parcel.

“Considering further expansion, Highfields made sense to us, particularly the site adjacent, because of its undulating landscape that can help us offer different products,” he said.

“Where the two sites will differ will be in respect to product type — Highfields Heights allows us to introduce two-storey products and also hybrids of both, so we can offer something unique.

“We can capitalise on the cross-breezes through the site, and the products will reflect that — they will maximise space within the home to offer downstairs and upstairs living.”

Concept art for GemLife's new Highfields Heights over-50s retirement resort, which is currently under construction.

It comes as the developer reveals it has sold nearly 320 homes in GemLife Highfields, which was released to the market back in 2017.

Mr Puljich said the expected completion of the original project next year would allow GemLife to focus solely on Highfields Heights in 2026.

“We’ve had tremendous success with GemLife Highfields since 2018, it’s a project that has had a few expansion opportunities as the over-50s market looks to Toowoomba and Highfields for a treechange,” he said.

Prominent developer Adrian Puljich.

“That resort is 85 per cent complete, so we’d look to complete it by Christmas next year, which will complement us transitioning to GemLife Highfields Heights.”

Highfields and Kleinton is quickly becoming an epicentre for over-50s developments, with Ingenia Communities lodging an 565-site development off Highfields.

Elsewhere, a new retirement resort in Torrington by Clifton Lifestyle was approved earlier this year while another project involving a nine-hole private golf course in Cotswold Hills by Country Club Living has also been advanced.

Concept art for GemLife's new Highfields Heights over-50s retirement resort, which is currently under construction.

Mr Puljich’s family company Living Gems has also put forward plans for its own 266-home resort in Cotswold Hills.

The increased development has led to changes by the council’s rating strategy in recent years, with the 2023-24 budget seeing a big hike in rates for retirement resorts.

Mr Puljich said his industry’s asset class played a key role in freeing up housing by allowing older Toowoomba residents to downsize.

“We pay more than our fair share to council and we see ourselves as part of the affordable housing solution, by allowing people to downsize,” he said.

“We also provide facilities that are not at the impediment of the public (so) from our view, we’re a piece in the puzzle and we want council to recognise what has proven to be quite popular.”

Packages inside GemLife Highfields Heights start from about $700,000.