Gone are the days when retirement living was defined by community centres, swimming pools and bowling greens. While these amenities still exist – the provision of care is now a core part of the value proposition.
Hyegrove Willoughby on Sydney's Lower North Shore, Levande’s The Cambridge in Epping, in Sydney's northwest, and Stage 2 of LDK Seniors’ Living Amberfield retirement village in Canberra, are all about to open.
All are purpose-built from the ground up. All provide retirement living, with the guarantee of care. Two are giving private aged care, with the third integrating with an aged care operator.
Hyecorp Property Group’s first retirement village is a $300 million development, with 111 one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments and 47 private high care suites, known as Hyecare suites. Apartments have sold at an average of $2.8 million, or around $28,000 per square metre. Hyecorp is providing its own home care services.
Hyecorp Property Group Director Patrick Abolakian told LEADERS SUMMIT in March the project was 80% sold, and that figure has since climbed.
Levande’s 28-storey high vertical village The Cambridge, which officially opens next month, has 172 retirement living units. Six floors house Epping Grand Care Community by Opal HealthCare, supporting continuity of care. Levande offers a favourable upfront payment model.
Over 60% of Stage 1 was sold, The Weekly SOURCE reported in July last year.
LDK Seniors’ Living offers its One Move Promise. CEO Byron Cannon calls LDK a home care operator within a retirement village setting. It guarantees the cost of the apartment purchased is returned if its Village Membership model is paid upfront. Its weekly fee is fixed for life.
"We've just sold over $200 million of property leading into the early part of this year at Amberfield, our next project in Canberra, without $0.01 cent in advertising. It’s driven by the value proposition of the brand, the model, and also very strongly driven by the people that we have working for us,” Byron told LEADERS SUMMIT in March.
Providing care is now a given in today’s world. Daniel Gannon, Retirement Living Council Executive Director, was in Brisbane last Friday telling the Queensland Government retirement living is part of the solution to the ageing crisis – nearly 2,500 elderly people are languishing in hospital despite being medically ready for discharge because there are no aged care beds available.
Daniel wants to see the development of integrated care (retirement living and aged care services combined) given essential infrastructure to bypass local councils and hopefully see an increase in new developments.
StewartBrown Senior Partner Grant Corderoy, whose work is on speed dial to the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing, made a great point at our Salesforce Plan T lunch in August.
Care is here to stay. Residents are not getting any younger. Operators are solving for the provision of care in real time as residents age.
New projects such as Hyegrove, the Cambridge and Amberfield are showing the appetite of operators around care is changing – for the better, with the provision of care becoming imperative.
More importantly, customers want it. The sell-down success of all three projects speaks for itself.
