Podia’s $53m Residential Plans for NSW Tourism Hotspot

Podia is exhibiting plans for a $53-million mixed-use project, the latest scheme to hit the development hotspot of Kingscliff in Tweed Shire.

About 35km south of the Gold Coast, on the NSW side of the border, the project at 4-8 Bells Boulevard would host a five-storey, 69-apartment building. The 4450sq m site is now used as a mostly cleared, 27-space carpark.

The ground level would hold retail and residential space and two basement levels would yield 184 carparking spaces. A concurrent rezoning request is under way to permit residential use, as well as a height increase from 13.6m to 21.4m on the site.

A proposed floor space ratio of 1.92:1 would yield residential floor area of 7878sq m (including two affordable apartments), while commercial space of 690sq m would be included in the total GFA of 8566 square metres. Although additional height is proposed, the current permitted FSR of 2:1 would not be exceeded.

This is the largest project to hit the masterplanned block acquired in 2024, with earlier stages delivering subdivisions allowing a total of 27 two-storey homes and a 12–home apartment block.

The design by SJB responds to the coastal village character of the surrounding Salt Precinct, according to the application, and will support tourism with the retail space.

The rezoning request proposes permanent residential rather than tourism or mixed-use. A mixed-use zoning to allow shoptop housing would not permit ground-floor apartments, the proposal states and residential rezoning with additional commercial use permitted would be optimal. 

▲ Ground-floor retail would still support tourism, as well as local housing, the application says.

As the Gold Coast continues to boom, the economic and demographic impact has recently spread south of the border into Tweed. As much as 23 per cent of the local government area’s population commute to work in South-East Queensland, while 17 per cent of local employees live in Queensland. The $723-million Tweed Valley Hospital in Kingscliff completed in 2024, servicing the region’s growing population.

In November 2025, a $200-million Uniting Kingscliff senior living project was approved at 24A Kingscliff Street and 27-33 Lorien Way. That scheme will yield 199 independent living apartments, as well as a 120-bed residential aged-care facility. The 28,862sq m site would also host a wellness centre, cinema, hairdresser and medical centre, while retaining the existing church. 

Meanwhile, the 4500-home Kings Forest Estate greenfield development to the west of Kingscliff was sold in August 2025. Bob Ell, who reportedly acquired the 869ha site in 2003 for about $20 million, offloaded the DA-approved project to Stockland for $620 million.