114 Gold Coast homes underway: construction starts on $115m Kin by Azure in Southport

Construction has started on 114 homes at 1 Clarke Street, Southport, in a $115 million project by Brisbane developer Azure. Queensland's Deputy Premier, Jarrod Bleijie, turned the first sod on Thursday, 12 November. The state says Economic Development Queensland approved the development in 29 business days. Azure is targeting completion in the third quarter of 2028.

Kin by Azure will mix three-bedroom terrace homes with one- and two-bedroom apartment-style residences, across two- and three-storey floor plans and five architectural designs. The 1.7-hectare site sits in the Parklands Priority Development Area, part of the Gold Coast Health and Knowledge Precinct beside Gold Coast University Hospital. In that PDA, EDQ is the assessment manager, which is how the approval could be granted so quickly.

Azure founder Trent Keirnan said Kin is the first project the company is delivering with EDQ. "Kin is the first project we're delivering together, and it's built on a shared goal of providing quality, design-led homes to the community sooner," he said. "When government and industry are aligned on the same outcome, homes get delivered faster – and that's exactly what Queensland needs right now."

Timber frames and incomplete roofs among houses under construction at Ormeau, on the northern Gold Coast. Photo: Kerry Raymond / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 3.0), cropped

A medium-density alternative to high-rise

Keirnan said Azure chose terraces and lower-rise residences to give Gold Coast buyers a different option. "We wanted to develop an alternative living option for the area," he said. "Terrace homes give buyers more space, a genuine sense of community and the feel of a house, without the maintenance of a large block. It's a product we believe the market has been missing."

The Queensland Government says earlier plans for more than 800 apartments on the site were not delivered. Azure has instead designed a medium-density terrace community. Its project page lists a 20-metre swimming pool among the shared facilities, and launch coverage has described the development as a gated community. Housing Minister Sam O'Connor, who also attended the sod turning, said the 114 homes would create more opportunity for people who want to own a home on the Gold Coast, "especially for our health workers at GCUH just next door."

Bleijie said the project is "tucked perfectly in the Gold Coast Health and Knowledge Precinct and close to shops, dining and parkland." He also pointed to a record 52,500 homes under construction across Queensland — the rounded figure from the Australian Bureau of Statistics' June-quarter building activity release, which counted 52,567.