The free calculator, available at www.rvcalculator.org, is designed to take the three main village fees – entry fee, ongoing fee and exit fee – and calculate a simple ‘equivalent monthly rent’.
The comparison tool was developed by Dr Tim Kyng – who has cropped up as a commentator in the recent Fairfax coverage of retirement villages.
He uses the example of two retirement villages in Sydney with an entry fee of $775,000 (village A) and $750,000 (village B). While the village with the lower entry fee and lower monthly fee looks cheaper, the tool calculates it will actually cost an extra $1,100 a month over seven years.
It won’t be the last village fee calculator either. As we reported here, KPMG is developing a similar tool for NSW Fair Trading that is expected to launch later this year.
