Three major conference themes

1. Residents and government will increasingly expect care to be delivered into
villages. Fred Huckerby of Blue Care championed the term ‘integrated’. This
means operators will have to provide ‘ageing in place’ housing designs and
management that is trained to support increasingly frail and dependent residents.
2. The rush to buy villages by the big, new players is over. They now have the size
and as importantly, the land banks, to make them an ‘asset class’ and ‘investment
grade’.
3. Marketing will now become king. The industry challenges, according to John
Martin of Babcock & Brown Communities, are:
• Increase the profile of the industry
• Educate investors and retirees about retirement living
• Market the value proposition of villages and DMF’s
• Rid the perception that retirement is for ‘old’ people
• Promote benefits to health of retirement living