What people said at the conference
Jim Hazel (Chairman, Ingenia): watch out the Not for Profits. They are the only ones doing innovative things; they have a monopoly on home care delivery and are the only operators creating new models Michael Eggington (Head of Retirement Living...
Jim Hazel (Chairman, Ingenia): watch out the Not for Profits. They are the only ones doing innovative things; they have a monopoly on home care delivery and are the only operators creating new models
Michael Eggington (Head of Retirement Living, Development - Lend Lease Retirement Living): the nub of my concerns is the need to unlock sites and our residents economic situations
Craig Percy (COO, Life Care Residences UK): we sell our retirement villages as a needs driven product.
David Pitman (CEO, Stockland Retirement): The retirement village sector is a fantastic opportunity. We are pioneers with a fragmented market but one that has a proven value proposition, strong demand and government supports it.
Retirement villages are a fantastic place to age in place they overcome isolation, emotional and physical, and they are efficient (in the delivery of services).
My biggest concern is long-term access to capital. Outsiders always look at property classes in terms of yield and growth profiles we get low yields/high growth. Investors have great difficulty identifying comparisons they only have Ingenia and us to compare.
Simon Owen (CEO, Ingenia): You cant build rental villages today. We want to buy existing rental villages at 40 to 60% of replacement value in that delivers us a 10% cash yield.
Matthew Fisher (Director, Greengate): We have six variations of the DMF. Our focus is on the weekly fees we offer incoming residents (focusing on affordability).
Doug Strain (CEO, Masonic Homes SA): The DMF is a reverse mortgage.
Andrew Giles (Ex CEO, RVA): Why change from the RVA? The window of opportunity (for advocacy) is closing. At state level government is asking more questions (supporting consumerism).
Mary Wood (Executive Director, Retirement Living Council): The biggest challenge with government is ignorance and apathy.
Norah Barlow (CEO, Summerset NZ): Virtually no 100% aged care facilities have been built in New Zealand in the past five years all have been incorporated in retirement villages. Banks will not look at villages without care.
Ray Glickman (CEO, Amana Living): There has been a significant failure in sector advocacy (by our peak bodies).
As a community we must develop a respect for wisdom in our seniors.
Derek McMillan (CEO, Retirement Living, Australian Unity: We need to defeat the loneliness in the community.
(New funding arrangements will be a challenge) from July 2014. People will have no access to the value in their home but will have to pay more for care.
Phil Simich (COO, The Bethany Group): our experience is that 90% of our aged care residents come from our villages and this delivers a 20% premium on our ILUs (pricing).
Ian Yates (CEO, COTA): I see an increasing questioning of the lease licence/DMF model and the growth of an aged consumer movement.
Jenny Clancy (GM Sales, Retirement Alliance): We now only employ mature, experienced real estate salespeople. They empathise and they know how to close.
Ian Tregoning (Co-Director, Living Choice): We listen to our customers. After extensive research we reduced the number of apartments at Fullerton (Adelaide) from 160 to 125 for largest floor space and increased the top price from $1 million to $1.5 million - these ILUs sold on day one.
