Landcom plans 800 homes on Tweed Heads' old hospital site

Landcom, the New South Wales Government’s development corporation, is planning a riverside neighbourhood of around 800 homes on the former Tweed Hospital site in Tweed Heads, in the Tweed Shire Council area just south of the Queensland border, and promoted the plan in an Instagram post this week. The state government first announced the site on 20 July, and Landcom’s own project page confirms the home count and lays out a timeline running to 2032.

The site sits between Powell, Florence and Solander streets, 300 metres south of Tweed Mall and alongside the Tweed River reserve. NSW Health handed the land to Landcom after the hospital’s health services relocated. Landcom’s project material says it wants to turn the riverfront edge into a space where people can walk, gather and enjoy the river, with new footpaths improving links to existing green space and the waterfront. Landcom frames the project around the idea that neighbourhoods are best shaped together with the people who will live in them, and its own material says building heights, the housing mix and the final design are still subject to technical studies and further community consultation before any application is lodged.

Why it matters

Tweed Heads’ rental vacancy rate sits at just 0.8 per cent, one of the lowest in New South Wales, the state government said in its 20 July announcement. The site is already in public hands, since NSW Health transferred it to Landcom, so the state-owned developer does not need to assemble or buy land before it can plan homes there, unlike a private developer working the same market. Landcom’s own project timeline commits to putting at least 10 per cent of the roughly 800 homes into affordable housing, while the government’s July release said up to 10 per cent, a ceiling rather than a floor, and Landcom says the share still depends on funding and a delivery partnership with a community housing provider.

The numbers

Landcom’s project page sets the home count at around 800 dwellings, a figure it says is subject to further design work, approvals and community feedback, so the number is not locked in. At least 10 per cent of those would be affordable housing under Landcom’s own commitment, delivered through a partnership with a community housing provider still to be struck. The site covers the former hospital land between Powell, Florence and Solander streets, 300 metres south of Tweed Mall and alongside the Tweed River reserve. Landcom’s timeline lists project completion in 2032, with plans submitted and approved in 2027.

What’s next

Landcom says the project will run through the State Significant Development Application pathway, which may include a separate rezoning proposal, a step it has not yet taken. Its own timeline has early works possible from 2027, with construction beginning in 2028; the state government’s July release instead put construction starting in 2029, a gap between the two records that is not explained on either. Both Landcom and the government agree the project remains subject to planning approvals Landcom has not yet sought. It lands in the same week the Minns Government opened consultation on simpler planning rules for industrial and employment land, part of a wider state push to speed up approvals across both housing and industrial sites. Landcom Chief Executive Officer Alexander Wendler said in July: “Landcom is making homes happen for the Tweed region.”