New Zealand’s largest village and aged care operator has confirmed it is back on track to have five villages open in Victoria by Christmas – and put two villages on the ground every year in the near future.
As we covered here, the operator, which opened its first village in Melbourne in 2014, had warned the market two months ago that it may miss its long-held target of five villages in Victoria by the end of this year.
But Chief Executive Gordon MacLeod has told the Fin Review that they are now confident of meeting this mark.
“Our plan is to have the same build rate in Victoria as we have in New Zealand, basically opening a couple of villages per annum and building at a rate of about 800 units per year.”
“There will be more to come. Our intention is to continue to buy new sites. Whether in metro Melbourne or greater Victoria and match the build rate we’ve been doing in New Zealand.”
“We’ve got a number of potential irons in the fire,” he said.
Mr MacLeod also foreshadowed further expansion into other Australian states.
“The focus is on Victoria right now. But I would be surprised if we didn’t go into additional states in Australia,” he added.
Currently Ryman has 11 sites in its Victorian portfolio – three villages up and running and eight in various stages of planning and construction based on the NZ model of retirement living, assisted living and aged care on a single site.
