Planners have for many years been advocating for greater mixed use developments to help restore the vitality of cities. After the early modernist enthusiasm for the separation of certain land uses, notably of residential and industrial uses, and the subsequent development of more finely graded landscapes of residential class segregation, social mix has become a watchword of contemporary planning. Alongside a belief in the inherent virtues of variegation, there is also a belief, often expressed with some reticence, in the uplifting potential of social mix or balance: in short those able to afford to live in bigger, better and more expensive houses in mixed residential neighbourhoods may serve as aspirational role models for their less well-off neighbours. The empirical validity and moral appropriateness of some of these beliefs and assumptions have been questioned, but they remain a significant feature of much contemporary planning discourse. Meanwhile, the urban development market has been promoting with some success residential schemes that segregate their occupants from the city at large and which make a virtue of their exclusivity. In many cases this exclusivity is based solely on price, but age has also become a significant factor in these processes of segregation. In this paper we are interested in the extent to which these new developments represent either a continuation of or transition to segregated living for their inhabitants and explore what this means in the wider context of urban policy and planning. The paper begins with a review of current demographic trends in Australia and on the Gold Coast and then considers some recent developments in housing for older people. It describes the emergence active adult lifestyle communities (AALCs) in the USA and their development in Australia before considering their impact in the city of the Gold Coast, where they have become a small but significant feature of the local housing landscape. The paper concludes by reflecting on the broader implications of this move to more segregated forms of urban living.