Daniel Gannon positions retirement living as essential infrastructure

Retirement Living Council Executive Director Daniel Gannon has issued a rallying cry to the retirement living sector this morning at the National Retirement Living Summit 2026 in Brisbane.

With 800 delegates in the room, Daniel positioned the sector as providing essential national infrastructure that offers a solution to Australia’s housing, health and ageing challenges.

He said the sector must rise above its disappointment in the recent Federal Budget and offer a “sharper national argument” focusing on building more accommodation.

“If we’re serious about meeting the challenge of an ageing Australia, we need to build more because we cannot solve an ageing challenge with a housing shortage,” Daniel said.

Constructive approach

Daniel listed the sector’s key constraints: planning delays, confused land use treatment, inconsistent regulation, capital pressure, construction costs, and policy settings that still don’t fully recognise retirement living as part of the housing solution, the care solution and the productivity solution.

But he urged the sector to lead a “constructive” national conversation highlighting the the sector's potential as essential infrastructure that will help the sector attract more capital.

With a “bold” and “solutions focused” approach, Daniel said the sector must define retirement living “as a modern housing choice, as a platform for independence”, offering an answer to housing, hospital and aged care pressures.

“We must make that case so clearly, so confidently that governments can no longer look past it,” he said.

“The need is growing. The opportunity is real. The responsibility is ours and the capability is in this room. And if we get this right, we won’t just change retirement living. We’ll change how Australia ages,” he concluded.