Queensland Tourism
The growth of Australia’s tourism capital, picture-postcard beachfront city the Gold Coast, has been underwritten by a Queensland Government plan that will see billions of dollars spent on infrastructure.
The move is intended to ensure the city will be able to cope with the thousands of people who are moving there every year to lap up what many regard as the best lifestyle in the world.
The infrastructure plan takes in everything from roads and railways to schools and hospitals.
Government experts predict the Gold Coast, where the current population has hit 500,000, will need 130,500 new homes in the next 20 years.
The infrastructure plan has been unveiled as developers, including major listed corporations, are building homes and apartments at a frantic pace and at the same time eagerly securing sites for new projects.
Developers, aware that buyers want alternatives to the ritz and glitz of the central Gold Coast, have turned their attention south in big fashion.
The upshot is that Coolangatta is shaping up to be the jewel in the crown of a coastal strip that stretches many kilometers south, with property projects worth $5 billion under way.
The strip is rich with pristine beaches, making it one of the major beneficiaries of a sea-change phenomenon that is luring thousands of people to coastal communities.