A retirement village’s next competitive advantage isn’t a clubhouse

Retirement village operators with real skin in the game are backing Care Hubs. From day one. 

Grandton delivered a Care Hub at Applecross in Perth. 

Hyegrove has delivered 42 care suites at Willoughby in Sydney’s north, achieving pricing that competes with the wider apartment market. 

Late last year, Patrick Smith’s The Henley on Broadwater expanded its care suites from 12 to 21 in response to internal demand. 

Odyssey, LDK and Esprit de Vie have pursued a similar strategy. 

These operators are betting millions of dollars that older Australians will pay for choice, certainty and a pathway to care. 

So far, they appear to be right. 

When RetireAustralia announced a Care Hub as part of The Verge on the Gold Coast, the question everyone asked was simple: 

Can you make money from it? 

Despite an estimated $2 million investment before reaching scale, CEO Brett Robinson’s answer has always been yes. 

“The returns are realised over time through scale in care delivery and through the value residents place on communities that provide that level of support and certainty in their decision to move.”

In short, they price it in. Not just into the price of the care hubs, but into the wider community in which they sit. At The Verge, this is pricing upside across 168 ILUs. 

The important question then is this: Why aren’t others doing it? 

The answer may be that care isn’t new to private equity-owned RetireAustralia. 

Years before The Verge, the operator committed to care as part of its long-term strategy. Its Glengara Care model on the NSW Central Coast combines serviced apartments with a care team supporting residents across neighbouring villages and the wider community. 

The lesson is simple. 

Care Hubs are not a building type. 

They are the result of a strategic decision to invest in care capability. 

That capability has value. 

Consumers clearly see the value and they gain choice 

Rather than waiting months for a Support at Home package or more than a year for an aged care bed, they can access care immediately, provided a unit is available. 

Nobody wants to move into aged care, and the customer will pay. 

What’s more, the Care Hub apartments at The Verge and Applecross start from around $600,000, while RetireAustralia’s new Arcadia community in Brisbane starts from around $800,000.  

Compare that to the current $750,000 RAD threshold in residential aged care. 

So if customers want it, and are willing to pay for it, why aren’t more operators following? 

Because building a Care Hub is easy, and building a care business is hard. 

The Retirement Living Council says Care is Infrastructure and the operators with the greatest conviction are already investing millions of dollars as though it is.  

Some have been doing it from day one. 

The question is no longer whether Care Hubs work. It is whether more operators can afford to ignore them.