A report commissioned by the Property Council of QLD has shown the number of people in retirement living in south-eastern QLD will more than double over the next 15 years to 78,000.
The RPS Consultants research also estimated 111,000 independent living units will be needed by 2050 or 3,264 a year. This is a four-fold increase from the current 28,000.
To put this in perspective, this is the equivalent of say 1400 high rises of 10 storeys each, co-author and RPS Brisbane Regional Technical Director for Planning, Désirée Houston-Jones said.
Brisbane City Council already has a plan in place to tackle the shortage and is working to speed up applications in the short-term.
In Brisbane we face a potential shortfall of 820 places in low-care and high-care aged facilities by 2021, City Planning Chairman Cr Julian Simmonds said.
Provisions already introduced include:
allowing smaller lots around larger shopping centres in residential areas
increasing the permitted size of granny flats to 80m2
reducing car parking requirements for retirement facilities
creating a classification and assessment for aged care facilities so they can be suitably assessed for areas of the city.
In the last year, the Council has also approved 16 applications for residential aged care homes.
