A ‘sense of scale and quality’: Grand designs for Peacocke retirement village
Monday, 29 June 2026
A grandiose $300 million retirement village on the banks of the Waikato River is taking shape with the developer behind it saying homes will be available to buy from next year.
Qestral Corporation’s Broadwater Retirement Village, located on a 19ha site near the Te Ara Pekapeka Bridge, is a large-scale, master-planned community that will include 230 homes, along with aged-care and specialist dementia-care facilities, clock tower - and a grand “manor” containing 32 serviced apartments with balconies.
In all, the retirement village development will cost $300 million, offering employment for 105 staff.
Earthworks have been underway since late 2025 and CKL, the planning, surveying and engineering consultancy helping deliver Broadwater Retirement Village say the project is now moving into the next phase of development.
'A contract has recently been awarded for the civil construction works, which includes the internal roads and the water, wastewater and stormwater infrastructure needed to support the village,’’ CKL director Bevan Houlbrooke told the Waikato Times.
“That's an important step because it unlocks the next stage of the project, including the retirement villas, care centre and lodge facilities.
'Over the next 12 months, people will start to see the site change quite dramatically.
“As the roads and services go in, Broadwater will begin to take on a much more recognisable urban form and people will get a better sense of the scale and quality of what's being created.
'It's exciting to see this level of activity happening in Peacocke. Projects like Broadwater are helping turn years of planning and infrastructure investment into a real community on the ground”.
Qestral director Simon O’Dowd says construction of the village’s 60-bed care facility is expected to start in a few months’ time and the first stage of houses will be available by the end of 2027.
The development is a key component of the Peacocke subdivision.
“We chose Hamilton because it is a dynamic city with a high concentration of the Waikato region's over-65s,’’ O’Dowd said.
“This has resulted in a strong demand for village and care facilities from a rapidly ageing demographic, which appears to be outpacing the construction of new units and rest-homes.”
The “high-end’’ retirement village, complete with ”comprehensive entertainment and social centre” is expected to be ”a substantial asset“ for the city, he said.