Toowoomba’s Essence Estate subdivision, new retirement village at Cotswold Hills to move ahead of land sells through Ray White

Two major projects worth upwards of $200m to the Toowoomba economy will be ramped up in the coming months, including a new $100m retirement resort with a private golf course.

Work will start in 2022 on the Toowoomba Fairways Country Club retirement resort, which will include a private nine-hole golf course.

More than $200m worth of housing developments in Toowoomba’s western corridor will be ramped up in the coming months, after two parcels were sold in deals worth a combined $10.6m.

Ray White Special Projects confirmed it had handled the sale of Essence Estate in Cotswold Hills, with the original Sydney developer transferring the 39 hectares of land to different companies.

Toyota-backed Gold Coast developer Homecorp Constructions, which has delivered $1.5bn in housing since 2004, bought the original Essence Estate for $7.5m and will move ahead with creating a new residential community worth nearly 400 lots.

The estate, which will release more lots to a market hungry for more detached dwellings, will create $90m in revenue from the land alone.

SOLD: Land at Cotswold Hills in Toowoomba designated for a housing estate worth nearly 400 lots and a new retirement village with a private nine-hole golf course have sold to two different developers for deals worth a combined $10.6m, through Ray White Special Projects.

Homecorp acquisition and development manager Matthew Plenca said the company wanted to start work within months and was finalising its land-and-house packages.

“We intend on commencing construction as soon as possible,” he said.

“Homecorp being a developer and builder, we’ll be offering house-and-land packages and that’s going to increase the supply of homes to buy and rent.

“Concurrently, we’re actually getting operational works approvals for stages two and four, which is the balance of the approved estate (70 lots).

“Sixty-three lots are already built and a further 58 are operational (and) we’re also preparing (for council) a development application for a further 178.”

Essence Estate.

Mr Plenca said Homecorp had been attracted by Toowoomba’s strong economic growth.

“There’s been strong inquiry for the product, we see Toowoomba as a strong region and there’s been significant investment by developers such as the Berghofers, Wagners and QIC,” he said.

“It’s only going to go from strength to strength.

“With the delivery of the new sporting complex (at Charlton by the council) adjacent to the site, that will drive Toowoomba’s growth.”

Victorian retirement resort specialist Country Club Living has also secured the northern portion of the original parcel for $3.6m, clearing the way for it to start work on its 183-unit development.

Dubbed Toowoomba Fairways, the resort will include a bowling green, theatre, croquet club, caravan storage, community gardens, bar, pool and a private nine-hole golf course.

CCL director Alistair Gull said the project would be worth up to $100m once completed.

“We’ll just finalise detailed designs for the roads and tender our building works and the earthworks,” he said.

“We’re going to get in and start the golf course as well as the clubhouse for the course — that will help us with sales as well.

“We had a soft launch from some inquiries we’ve had, and we’ve got some good interest already.

“We’re excited to have a new village in Toowoomba, and it suits our product.”

Ray White Special Projects co-principal Mark Creevey said the deals would unlock a raft of development in a fast-growing portion of the Toowoomba region.

“Toowoomba, like most major regional centres in Queensland, has seen significant demand for residential land and improvement in values which has driven strong demand for residential development sites,” he said.

“We received a large amount interest from groups seeking to build up a pipeline of stock in the southeast Queensland land market.”