The new group is seeking input from residents – and evaluating its retirement villages – as it looks to deliver a continuum of care to its existing and future residents.
As we reported two weeks ago, global investment firm EQT Infrastructure has launched its re-brand of Stockland’s 58 retirement villages. This follows the successful completion of its $987 million acquisition of Stockland’s Retirement Living Business, including 58 villages and 10 communities in development.
Speaking exclusively to SATURDAY on Levande’s first day of operations, new CEO Suzanne Dvorak says the business has initiated a four-month strategic review to determine its focus moving forward.
“It’s absolutely critical to listen to what our residents want, and then to make sure that we can deliver upon it,” she said.
“We are providing some opportunities for our residents and customers to input into our strategy. We are also building up a portfolio view, village by village, so we are looking at what our customers want and what we have.”
“Now we need to look at what we need from a strategic point of view and who we want to be. At this point in time, there is nothing that is off the table.”
Stockland had been looking to sell its Retirement Living Business for around seven years, citing lower returns and the need to provide ‘care’ to ageing residents as well as its growing development pipeline, which includes a significant investment in land lease communities.
As we reported in March following the announcement of EQT’s acquisition of Stockland’s 58 retirement villages and 10 communities in development, EQT had signalled that it was committed to bringing a stronger focus on ‘care’ to the brand’s value proposition.
“We will have to define and refine the exact model of delivery over the next few months, but our goal is to offer our senior Australians the ability to age in place,” Suzanne stated.
“We want to focus on giving our residents the ability to receive the services they need in their own home, and within a community in which those services are offered, without necessarily having to move out into an aged care setting.”
Read the full interview with Suzanne in this last week's issue of SATURDAY – SUBSCRIBE HERE.
