At the 2025 LEADERS SUMMIT, retirement village veteran Peter Inge stood up and declared he was ready to buy established villages – pitching to the audience to reach out. He’s not the only one. Capital is circling, portfolios are in play, and the competition for stock hasn’t been this fierce in 20 years.

When Peter made his pitch, many of the new faces in the room may have missed what it meant: the retirement village market is back in the spotlight with three of the four major operators in play this year.

The speculative excitement hasn’t been this strong since the pre-GFC days, when private operators like FKP (Aveo), Stockland and Macquarie snapped up assets and groups such as Zig Inge and the Knowles family cashed in. This time, Not For Profits are also part of the chase.