2021 commenced with the Aged Care Royal Commission Final Report followed by the response from the Federal Government which signalled continuing tight funding of residential aged care and a boost to funding to home care.
These two facts cemented in aged care home operators that they had to look to new, stable revenue plus new funnels of residential care customers.
Their strategic answer – retirement villages that offer assisted living and care services, the territory of Not for Profits.
Significant operators like Uniting in NSW and Bolton Clarke out of QLD (featured above) unveiled $700 million to $1 billion development programs for integrated retirement villages, to name a few.
Single location Not For Profit operators through to the majors are all unleashing their balance sheets to develop new retirement living product, which will hit the market over the next three to seven years.
They see retirement villages as an outreach location in communities, building in medical and allied health rooms, plus community service facilities to engage future customers to aged care.
Behind the Not for Profits are a small group of private operators who are developing innovative private aged care under the Retirement Village Act business models, like Odyssey and LDK, to great sales success.
In the just-released manifesto of the Australian Aged Care Consortium (AACC), bringing together ACSA and LASA and their Not For Profit members, is a statement that retirement living is a key policy area they wish to represent.
This will be a significant challenge to the largely private operator peak, the Retirement Living Council, which has only a handful of members that are investing significantly in portfolio growth.
As industry veteran Jim Hazel commented in SATURDAY Magazine, the Not for Profits are the elephant in the room and will shape retirement village sector over the next five to 10 years.
