Our Editorial Director, Lauren Broomham, reports daily on the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety when it is sitting.
What is clear to us here in our office is that much of the research and findings of the Royal Commission present opportunities for the retirement village sector.
For instance yesterday the Commission released a study that showed that Australia has 19% of all people aged 80+ living in residential aged care, compared to 12% in Canada and 6% in Holland.
A separate study yesterday identified that one extra hour of home care per week reduced the probability of an older person going into residential aged care by 6%.
Such data should be built in to every retirement village sales support kit. Combine the safety of a village home with coordinated home care to avoid residential aged care.
The Royal Commission, plus public sentiment, is pushing for the 100,000 people on home care package waiting lists to be funded over the next 12 months. There is probably no better place to receive it than in a village.
If you take a step back each of these points, plus innumerable others made by Commission, point to the fact that increasingly frail Australians want to retain their independence in their own home but that is only plausible if their home is fit for purpose, such as in retirement villages.
Equally retirement villages deliver on the financial and emotional needs far better than the family home.
What COVID has done is disrupt both ageing Australians and their families. What the Royal Commission has done is expose the cracks in the support of increasingly frail Australians.
Retirement villages, with their stable operator/management and mature regulatory environment, provide a proven and appealing solution if correctly packaged.
LDK is proving this point with record sales. Will others follow?
