Land Lease-Western Australia
PROVIDENCE FINALLY APPROVED FOR OVER-50S AT BASE OF PERTH HILLS
Author: Chris Thomson
The Urban Developer
A $190-million over-50s village planned for more than a decade at the base of the Perth hills has been approved with a little help from a state member of parliament.
Last month, Western Australia’s metro outer development assessment panel unanimously approved the village—by WA land lease operator Providence Lifestyle Group—for a former polo paddock at 32 Gavour Road, Wattle Grove, about 15km south-east of the CBD. Of 63 public submissions on the project, 35 were objections. But in a supportive oral submission to the panel, Perth Hills resident and Liberal member of WA’s upper house Phil Twiss said the ability of ageing residents of the hills to downsize was becoming “constrained”. “When we look at this development that is near ... to the hills, near to the families of the people who have grown up there, it provides quite the opportunity for [them] ... to take a lower maintenance place that’s been set up in a way that is suitable for their lifestyle, their time of life; the ability to sell their properties and then to go and lease and buy these properties in this development,” he said.
“The other side of it ... is that as those people move out of those properties, then the ability for younger families to move up into the hills and take over those larger properties ... opens up and it’s going to play its part in solving this significant housing crisis that we’ve got.” Former Kalamunda resident Jenny Sage told the panel that “more than 15 years ago”, before she downsized and reluctantly moved from the hills due to a dearth of lifestyle villages, she had advocated for such an establishment that had been proposed for the Wattle Grove site. “It is deeply concerning that this vital 15.5ha project has still not materialised,” she said. “The City of Kalamunda houses a higher percentage of senior citizens than almost any other metropolitan area [of Perth]. “In some [Kalamunda] suburbs, seniors over 65 make up more than a quarter of the population.”
74 – June / July 2026
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