Retirement villages are completely invisible to the Australian Government
The Productivity Commission has released its Housing Supply Regulation Interim Report. And in a year when “productivity” is on the tip of every Government official’s tongue, it is clear one word isn’t. Retirement – plus the word villages.
That’s not entirely true. The word retirement appears once in the 135-page report. On page 44:
“Land-lease housing models … are commonly used as an affordable retirement option.”
Not exactly what the retirement village sector would be hoping for.
Another win for the land lease sector
Land lease is the retirement accommodation sector in the Federal Government’s vision. It is also building five homes for every one independent living unit delivered by the retirement village sector.
Five to one.
Land lease has found a way to build at scale and the Productivity Commission can see its contribution. It accepts that purpose-built housing for older Australians facilitates downsizing and frees up established homes.
Build a land lease home, a three or four-bedroom home is released. A family moves in.
Build a retirement village home and the same thing happens but is not seen.
Why? Where did retirement villages lose the plot?
Land lease communities are increasingly being developed in the regional markets where retirement villages once expanded. Villages, meanwhile, are being constrained by planning systems that fail to recognise it as anything more than another residential development.
As a result, retirement villages have all but retreated from parts of Australia, regional Australia, as we will report in this week’s edition of SATURDAY.
That matters because regional Australia is 30% of our population and where suitable housing for older people is often needed most.
Both have their place, their market and their customer
Land lease and villages both deliver twice: one new home for an older Australian and one established home released for the next generation.
The narrative is that retirement living is supposedly essential infrastructure. It is included in Australia’s 1.2 million-home target.
Yet in one of the country’s most important reports on housing supply, retirement villages are nowhere to be seen.
This can’t be good for the retirement village sector.
