Bilinga PBSA Tower Waved Ahead on Appeal

A 12-storey purpose-built student development has been greenlit after an appeal to the Queensland Planning and Environment Court. Plans for the PBSA tower proposed for 99 Golden Four Drive at Bilinga, about 98km south of Brisbane by road and about 4km north of the NSW-Queensland border, were submitted to the City of Gold Coast Council in 2020. The plans were filed by GC1st Pty Ltd—Thi Hoa Dam is listed as sole director by ASIC documents. The project was attached to full-service student accommodation provider Arrival Living, and is the Australia and New Zealand operator’s first PBSA on the Gold Coast. The building will rise on a 1000sq m site in the “quiet, low-key” coastal suburb on the sought-after Golden Four Drive, which stretches from Currumbin in the north to Kirra, hugging the coast. The site is near Coolangatta and the Gold Coast Airport as well as the Southern Cross University Gold Coast campus. The site is zoned medium density under the Gold Coast City Plan, and was subject to a 23m height restriction. The PBSA plans designed by BDA Architects sought an increase on those restrictions to 12 storeys. ▲ A rendering of the student living project by BDA Architects. The project comprises 173 apartments and 223 beds in a range of configurations as well as communal areas for study, dining and relaxation, according to the original application. It had a residential density of one bed per 5.8 square metres. Also included in the scheme was 492sq m of communal space and a ground floor food and drink outlet, plus 24 parking spaces and 51 bike spaces. The initial application said there was not an adequate mix of housing in the area and a conspicuous lack of PBSA despite the area’s proximity to the Southern Cross University campus. However, the council refused the plans in 2023, saying that the project did not reinforce a “sense of place”, and its design did not “adequately reflect the local character”. The City of Gold Coast criticised a lack of infrastructure to deal with traffic and said that it did not sufficiently meet public parking demand. The developer then took the project to the Queensland Planning and Environment Court (QPEC), where its density was a major point of contention. ▲ A rendering of an earlier iteration of the PBSA project from 2020. The court was told there were 11 other sites near the proposal’s 1000sq m site that topped the 23m height restriction. Negotiations between the council and developer in the meantime led to the project being “no longer resisted” by the planning authorities. The court was told that there was a significant shortfall of student accommodation, and none near the SCU campus, which could free up cheaper accommodation for non-students. It was argued that the development would “contribute to housing choice and availability by providing a product that is not widely available on the Gold Coast, at an affordable price, and provide further residential dwellings needed in the city”. The court found that the density of the development was acceptable, and “a flexible approach should be taken in the public interest”. The court set aside the council’s refusal of the application and granted approval for the development, which will now join other student living projects in the city, such as Griffith University’s 1000-bed PBSA expansion at Southport.

Residential
Clare Burnett
Sun 23 Nov 25

Bilinga PBSA Tower Waved Ahead on Appeal

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ResidentialClare BurnettSun 23 Nov 25

Bilinga PBSA Tower Waved Ahead on Appeal

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Residential
Clare Burnett
Sun 23 Nov 25