It is 12 months today (27 June) that the joint Fairfax and Four Corners investigation into the retirement village sector, and Aveo in particular, went to air.
The lead journalist, Adele Ferguson, maintained the pressure with follow-up articles through to October. The ABC’s 7.30 Report and especially regional radio maintained the rage through to December. Channel 9 took advantage of the emotion, in particular with A Current Affair.
The core message was big business behind retirement villages will both plunder the wealth of ageing Australians who buy into retirement villages and at the same time treat them with total disrespect and disregard.
The impact was immediate, especially for private operators. Sales were hit by around 30% and 12 months later sales are still recovering for many operators.
‘Consumer trust’ was hit, and is still recovering. Private operator profits were hit and still recovering. Investor confidence was shaken.
Equally many families are still waiting to receive cash from the sale of vacant village homes that have not ‘resold’.
Many of the resident cases in the program featured unbalanced, negative and emotional reporting, with conclusions not supported by the full facts.
However Adele Ferguson won a Walkley Award for Excellence in Journalism.
In this special issue of The Weekly SOURCE we review the significant areas of impact and the response by operators and the sector to date.
