The ‘missing middle’ is how single women without sufficient funds for real housing has been termed, a group many retirement village operators know well from at times desperate enquiries for accommodation.
To the credit of the Retirement Living Council, they have led an initiative that goes somewhere to solving the problem – doing the deep policy work for government that could unlock significant retirement village stock, including homes no longer fit for contemporary housing but still more than fit for purpose.
As an opening proposition, the RLC offers a minimum 400 village homes to be available in the first year.
For a government to build 400 affordable housing homes, at say $300,000 each, would be cost to government $120 million. This does not reflect the real picture as the type of village stock offered is often in prime inner and middle ring suburbs where the land content alone would be $500,000+.
See the larger story below and read the full proposal HERE.
The RLC asks for $5 million over two years to set up the mechanism to connect women at risk and stock that is available. They also ask for some relatively minor concessions.
The significant point is the retirement village sector is proactively approaching government with a positive initiative.
This delivers conversations on a positive level and builds respect and trust, missing ingredients over the last 10 years, which has resulted in multiple releases of new regulations, most without consultation with the sector, in every state. And the federal government has shown no interest in the sector.
All village operators should download the proposal document and repetitively deliver it to their local members - federal and state.
