Internationally Villages and Aged Care Are Receiving a Battering

The challenges facing Australian operators are small compared to those in other countries. Examples:
• SOUTHERN Cross Healthcare, the UK's largest care home operator with an 8 per cent market share, employing 42,000 staff across 735 homes in the UK, has slipped into the red after a "very difficult" year, reporting a £22.9 million pre-tax loss for the year compared to a profit of £3m the year before. The group also reported a drop in average occupancy in from 90.7 per cent to 89.5 per cent. Southern was floated by previous owner Blackstone for £423m two years ago, but the company's market value has more than halved since then.

• Sunwest Management in the US has entered into a tentative deal to sell 45 of its 270 senior retirement communities, after Sunwest put 10 affiliated retirement communities into bankruptcy in August. Another five Sunwest affiliates sought protection from creditors last week. The company is suffering $1.8 billion debt load and a shortage of cash.
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• At "active adult" developments across the U.S., residents are debating whether to scrap the age restrictions that have helped define their way of life for almost five decades. Proponents of "age desegregation," as it's known in the industry, say opening the doors to people under 55 is the only way their once-idyllic enclaves can stay afloat amid a worsening economic climate. Residents of one New Jersey 55-plus development are living next to open foundations, with only 32 of 175 planned homes sold. The age restrictions have been lowered or dropped for at least nine new projects, while an additional 10 planned New Jersey developments were scrapped altogether.