A major Florida homebuilder unveiled the name and other details for its latest 55-and-over development, saying it will conduct a lottery for the first batch of lots because demand is so strong.
GL Homes said it will build about 500 homes on 188 acres at Valencia Del Mar in Boynton Beach, Florida, ranging in price from $1.1 million to more than $2 million. GL said it will release the first 75 lots in March.
Boynton Beach is in Palm Beach County, about 30 miles north of Fort Lauderdale. Home construction is expected to launch in the fall, with the first owners moving in by May or June 2026.
A date has not been announced for the Valencia Del Mar lottery, but it will be held in March via Zoom, according to Chief Operating Officer Marcie DePlaza. GL also held lotteries at recent launches for 55-and-over developments across the state in Naples, Port St. Lucie and Tampa, and is considering one in Fort Myers.
During the U.S. housing boom more than two decades ago, GL and other builders routinely held lotteries to give frenzied buyers an orderly way of selecting their home sites, but the practice has been much less common in recent years as demand waned due to higher prices and mortgage rates, analysts say.
"This harkens back to 2003, 2004, 2005," said Brad Hunter, a U.S. housing analyst with Hunter Housing Economics in West Palm Beach, Florida, in an interview. "In my experience, I've seen GL sell 30 or more homes per project per month, and that's something very few other builders can match."
Repeat buyers
Family-run GL, founded in 1976 and based west of Fort Lauderdale in the city of Sunrise, said it benefits from a robust business of referrals and repeat buyers. Another important factor, DePlaza said in an interview, is that buyers generally have become better accustomed to elevated mortgage rates near 7%.
"Demand is very, very strong," she said. "A lot of people have accepted that this is the range we're going to be at for a while so they've gotten off the fence."
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Valencia Del Mar will be GL's 12th "active adult" project in Palm Beach County and 23rd across the state since it started the concept in 1996. All of GL's age-restricted developments are branded under the "Valencia" name and aimed at baby boomers, the largest generation in history to hit retirement, design firm Gensler said recently in a report about active adult housing.
A large clubhouse and a full-time lifestyle director are at the center of the housing projects, and they also feature social halls, nail salons, restaurants, card rooms, fitness centers, indoor pickleball courts and other sports facilities and amenities.
More recent buyers may have different preferences than buyers in the 1990s when it comes to amenities, "but the demand for the lifestyle has not changed," DePlaza said.
GL builds exclusively in Florida, closing on 2,062 houses in 2023, making it the nation's 22nd-largest private builder, according to the most recent rankings from Builder magazine.