In February, LDK Seniors’ Living, a 50/50 joint venture between Paul Browne and Cromwell Property Group, paid $70 million to buy the trophy retirement village The Landings in Sydney’s Turramurra.
Browne asked for the 300 residents to trust LDK with a new model of contract, offering a membership and abandoning a DMF with future capital gain for the resident.
Last Wednesday was the cut-off and every resident bar one (in their 60’s) took up the offer.
The ‘membership’ delivers LDK’s ‘One Move Promise’ contract, a commitment that residents won’t have to leave the village when they are no longer ‘independent’. LDK will deliver care into their own home with a full care team on site 24/7.
LDK reports it has now sold all excess stock in The Landings, has a waiting list and is enjoying price escalation.
This is an important story because it says about 298 residents valued the opportunity to have more certainty around their care journey that they were willing to break their existing contracts, giving up future capital gains, to get that certainty, and LDK was able to establish sufficient ‘trust’ that they would deliver.
And The Landings is a top tier village, meaning the families had to accept the new contracts as well, with its implications on their inheritances.
In effect, LDK is establishing a ‘social contract’ with the residents about care that is outside the aged care regulatory system, an extension of the Seasons and Freedom models – both of which Paul Browne had a role in establishing.
In October, LDK commenced sales at their second location, the new Greenway Views village in Canberra with the new contract. They have achieved 31 sales, 17 in the past six weeks. Browne says they are achieving an 80% conversation rate for people aged 80+ who visit the village.
CEO Byron Cannon says LDK has a strategy to grow to 5,000 village homes based on the ‘One Move Promise’.
Paul Browne will be delivering the LDK model at our LEADERS SUMMIT 2020 in March in Sydney. Check it out HERE.
