Aura Holdings, which was co-founded by Tim Russell and Mark Taylor in 2016, has gained approval from Gold Coast Council to build a 32-storey retirement village – the highest vertical for the sector in Australia.

The 94-apartment tower on the Nerang River in the Budds Beach neighbourhood is the seventh project for Aura. The Brisbane-based company bought four properties, totalling 2,130sqm, for about $8.2 million about 12 months ago. The land acquisition came with prior approval for a 211-apartment residential tower.

“We just feel the south-east Queensland market is grossly undersupplied for quality product in the right location,” Tim said.

“We're generally selling to people in their 70s and we’re finding a lot of them are in their own family homes in mature suburbs, but to downsize and stay in the area, there’s not really a lot of choice.”

The tower has been designed by Brisbane-based O’Neill Architecture, and will feature 19 one-bedroom, 38 two-bedroom, and another 19 three-bedroom apartments. There will be 18 sub-penthouses, also with three bedrooms. A two-level podium has a pool and barbecue area, and there’s basement parking for 131 cars. About 2720sq m is given over to communal space.