$300m Halcyon Greens tees off on the Gold Coast

ONE of Australia’s most innovative baby boomer lifestyle developers, Halcyon, has today officially launched its flagship $300 million Halcyon Greens masterplanned community at Pimpama on the Gold Coast.The prestigious gated development will be Australia’s first over 50s golf and residential community, with frontage to an existing 18-hole golf course in the heart of Mirvac’s established Gainsborough Greens project.Halcyon Greens is the seventh and largest venture for Gold Coast-based Halcyon, which has been delivering its unique over 50s lifestyle communities at key locations across South East Queensland since 2003.The golf-inspired resort community will comprise five residential precincts surrounded by natural wetlands, conservation zones, parklands, wildlife and Gainsborough Greens Golf Course.Designed by renowned masterplanner and Sanctuary Cove architect Brian Toyota, of ML Design, Halcyon Greens will have 500 luxury homes partnered with a diverse suite of superb leisure facilities across a site that Halcyon acquired last year from Mirvac.Mr Toyota said while Sanctuary Cove introduced the masterplanned community to Australia, Halcyon Greens saw the evolution of the concept for the discerning baby boomer market.“A lot has changed since the mid 1980s and the notion of the masterplanned lifestyle community has become accepted practice in large developments,” he said.“Over 50s residential communities, with central clubhouses are one example of a new development model suited to today’s demographics; developments that are designed to offer ‘lifestyle.”Strategically located between the Gold Coast and Brisbane, and just east of the Pacific Motorway, Halcyon Greens will capitalise on a forecast influx of 16,000 baby boomers to the Pimpama catchment over the next 20 years, according to Urbis.“Population projections for the Pimpama area will increase pressure on existing residential supply with residents aged 50 to 74 years set to increase by 6.1 per cent per annum through to 2036,” the Urbis Market Outlook for Pimpama says.Halcyon Greens’ official launch comes amid a $3.6 billion infrastructure spend across the northern Gold Coast, one of Australia’s fastest growing regions, according to Urbis.The region’s growing population will be serviced by Westfield’s long-awaited $500 million Coomera Town Centre; a massive retail, commercial, health, education, entertainment and transport hub that is now under construction just south of Halcyon Greens.Halcyon joint managing director Bevan Geissmann said Halcyon Greens’ unique offering and central location in a high-growth region had met strong market acceptance with 75 per cent of homes sold, worth a total of $28 million in the first and second release.Dr Geissmann said most of the buyers were from within South East Queensland, with a few from interstate.“We are thrilled with the enthusiastic response to the first stage of Halcyon Greens which is unlike any over 50s lifestyle community in Australia,” he said.“Halcyon Greens will deliver a country club lifestyle in a safe, idyllic and sophisticated setting which appeals to the discerning baby boomer market.”The project is ideal for downshifting retirees seeking to free up equity and embrace a more leisurely lifestyle by selling their suburban family homes, as described by leading demographer Bernard Salt in his report ‘Re-imagining the Great Australian Lifestyle’.“The property solution is to find a cheaper accommodation model within 50km of the traditional family home that offer access to a resort-type lifestyle at a price point that frees up equity,” Mr Salt says.“In Queensland, the manufactured home market typically addresses precisely this segment of the market.”Mr Salt said these resort-style over 50s developments on the Gold and Sunshine coasts enabled the region’s boomers to downsize in style and pocket substantial equity while staying close to family and friends.Homes now for sale at Halcyon Greens are priced from $424,000 to $750,000.The Pimpama project is the developer’s third Gold Coast community and follows Halcyon Waters and, most recently, Vision by Halcyon, which are both at Hope Island.On the Sunshine Coast, Halcyon has completed two communities – Halcyon Parks and Halcyon Landing –and is currently progressing Halcyon Lakeside in Bli Bli.At Caboolture North, the developer is rolling out the 176-home Halcyon Glades.