2023 Year in Review: Community Living

The Weekly SOURCE looks back at the past 12 months in the community living sector. Villages and communities are full, prices are higher than ever but remain a bargain to most people and the Retirement Living Council claims it is the saviour of the housing crisis in Australia with a handful of caveats.   

January

• BaptistCare NSW & ACT announce it has bought three properties from the first private village operator to invest in building co-located aged care homes, Maurice Tulich and his daughter Bianca.
• Our LEADERS SUMMIT 2023 has 45 speakers locked in to speak on their three-year and seven-year strategies over two days in Sydney in March.
• After more than five years, the $500 million class action against Aveo Group is set to begin in March.
• In a sign of the times, SA-based Not For Profit Resthaven buys 12 retirement villages from ACH Group as it looks to focus on the emerging continuum of care model.
• VCAT (Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal) approves Ryman HealthCare's revised plans to build a $317 million development on the site of the historic Moondah Estate at Mt Eliza. Mornington Peninsula Shire Council's repeated rejections were criticised by VCAT.
• In a sign land lease communities are booming, GemLife Adrian Puljich is revealed to have bought a $22 million holiday retreat in the holiday mecca Byron Bay.

February

• Are prestige retirement villages relevant to high-net-worth customers? Sally Taylor, Managing Director of Retirement by Moran; Wayne Horbach, Director of Hotel Services – Montefiore; Rod Burger, General Manager – Aged Care and Retirement Living at Richard Crookes Construction; join Keizaid Mehta, National Head of Health and Professionals, Business Banking Westpac, and DCM Group CEO Chris Baynes in the latest Westpac Conversations at the Wharf.
• Retirement Living Council Executive Director Daniel Gannon tells Federal Minister for Housing, Julie Collins, retirement villages can help to provide affordable housing but only if laws and regulations are loosened.
• RetireAustralia, which owns and operates 28 retirement villages, is now providing a continuum of care and pushing to providing aged care.
• Ryman Healthcare's board is forced to act to secure its balance sheet by reducing its debt by $NZ900 million and will slow and/or paused construction at six existing sites and revises its development pipeline towards lower density developments.
• Four years after Stockland, which hurled itself into the land lease market in 2019, has 7,200 home sites available to build, overtaking the aggressive leader Ingenia Communities, which now has 6,450 home sites in the bank.
• Sector heavyweights Tony Randello, CEO of Aveo Group, Dr Brett Robinson, CEO of RetireAustralia, and Kim Teudt, Executive General Manager Retirement Living for Bolton Clarke, were elected Retirement Living Council President and Vice-Presidents, respectively.

March

• There were no seats left and people WERE standing when Minister for Aged Care, Anika Wells, spoke at LEADERS SUMMIT 2023. The Minister was one of over 45 CEOs speaking at the event in Sydney.

Watch her presentation here:

Optimism was the flavour of the forward-thinking strategic projections, while acknowledging that consolidation is taking place at an accelerating pace across aged care and community living.

• Singapore-listed conglomerate Thakral Corp has investments and businesses in many countries. However, it is Adrian Puljich’s land lease lifestyle resorts business GemLife, which Inderbethal Singh Thakral, CEO of Singapore-listed conglomerate Thakral Corp, said “is our crown jewel.” And it’s turning out to be even more beautiful than we envisaged,” Thakral said of its joint venture. “The profit has been steadily going up YOY (year-on-year).”
• Affordable rental village operator Eureka Group, under its Executive Chair Murray Boyte, proclaims it now operates off a sound financial base, a sustainable business model as its HY23 profit soars 92%. 
• Aura Holdings’ co-founders Mark Taylor and Tim Russell know they can double the size of their high-quality retirement living product in southeast Queensland and have gone to the market to seek a new investment partner alongside its existing funding partner, Singapore-based SC Capital Partners.
• The demand for retirement living is evident as BaptistCare reveal the 100 apartments at its $60 million Yarra Rossa have sold out after nine months. It's the Not For Profit's first retirement village in Canberra and telling is the site of a former aged care home.
• Dale and Charissa Harrison are hardly getting a wink of sleep as they discover the complexity of starting retirement living business UrbanLife, with four parcels of land in and around Melbourne.

April 

• Will the marriage of clubs and retirement living be fruitful? Stephen Abolakian, Managing Director at HYECORP Property Group; John Innes, Chief Executive Officer, Pariter; and Derek Smith, Relationship Manager, St George Bank, look ahead at the latest Westpac Conversations at the Wharf.   
• The capitulation by the class action lawyers Levitt Robinson in its six-year bid to score a speculated $100 million-plus from major village operator Aveo Group, claiming dodgy contracts and deals with residents, saved the retirement village sector months, and months of shockingly bad media coverage over claimed rip-off contracts. A class action win could have resulted in more class actions, a winding back of contract options available to residents of retirement villages and ramifications for the price exiting residents could sell at, not to mention the continued undermining of trust in the sector and impact on residents and the village workforce.

• The development of homes for Stockland, Lendlease Retirement and Mirvac hit as builders, including Porter Davis Homes in VIC and QLD, go into liquidation.  
• Murray Boyte, Eureka Group Chair, has issued a statement to the ASX after Aspen Group revealed in a press release it had made a bid to acquire the affordable rental accommodation provider and its 2507 units.

May

• The future of Special Disability Accommodation was put under the microscope at the latest Westpac Conversations at the Wharf featuring Michelle Northcote, National Manager, Disability Housing, and Westpac’s Kaizaad Mehta, National Head of Health and Industry Specialisation.
• New independent research from the DCM Institute has shone a light on the inadequate compensation for retirement Village Managers in Australia at an average of $92K – the village sector needs to urgently reassess their compensation structure for Village Managers.
• After more than 30 years in the market, Australia’s second largest retirement village operator Lendlease Retirement Living has walked away from its long-held title, launching a new name and brand Keyton as the division looks to focus “100%” on its retirement living business.
• Wholesale changes to the state’s Retirement Villages Act 1992 will now be drafted by the West Australian Government, including exit entitlements to former residents to be paid within 12 months from when the resident leaves.
• The Levande board appointed Kevin McCoy to lead the retirement living business on a permanent basis, following two months as interim CEO. Chair, David Gonski AC, confirmed the permanent appointment of the ex-Australian Unity CEO, Independent & Assisted Living.
• Ryman Healthcare’s Australian operations now contribute 25% of underlying profit. With another five villages being constructed in Australia, it will be interesting to see in 12 months’ time if the Australian division is still contributing approximately one quarter of Ryman Healthcare’s underlying profit.

June

• The audience stood and clapped as sector visionary Jim Hazel was inducted as a Retirement Living Council Honorary Life Member at its annual awards’ gala dinner on Queensland’s Gold Coast. Aveo Group CEO Tony Randello said he owed his career to Jim, and he still often consults him, as so many have done and are still doing in the retirement living sector.
• Bev Smith, Executive General Manager of myHomecare Group, and Cam Holland, CEO of Ryman Healthcare Australia, were unanimous at the Property Council’s Retirement Living Council Conference in Queensland’s Gold Coast. Both said that there should not be any standalone retirement village or residential aged care homes built in the future.
• Simon Furness, Uniting Director of Property and Housing, has announced an ambitious rental accommodation plan which is in response to the grave situation facing a growing number of ageing people that is only likely to worsen.
• The first development covering 175ha of bushland in one of southeast Queensland’s largest greenfield growth areas has been awarded to the Sydney-based developer Stockland. Stockland’s Caboolture West masterplan will include over 2,000 homes, a separate Stockland Halcyon lifestyle community.
• LDK Seniors’ Living has received approval from the National Capital Authority (NCA) for its Yarralumla Views aged care village in Weston, ACT. Construction is expected to begin this year on the $143 million development, which will comprise 55 two- or three- bedroom single-storey villas and townhouses, 261 one- and two-bedroom units in four buildings of up to five storeys each, and amenities including a “Care Hub” and clubhouse.
• In another clear example of bureaucrat madness, Mbark’s proposed retirement village at Federal Golf Club in ACT is to finally go before the public after many years of holdups.

July

• Stockland and Living Gems release press releases as the property developer buys one operating land lease community and four development sites form Living Gem, with Living Gems CEO Adrian Puljich stating the injection of $210 million capital, about $164,000 per home site, would allow the family to continue expanding the Living Gems footprint elsewhere.

• The barriers for growth in over 55’s land lease development was the subject of the latest Westpac Conversations at the Wharf with Ingenia Communities’ Managing Director and CEO, Simon Owen; Lincoln Place Executive Director Nick Collishaw, Aspen Group Joint CEO John Carter, and Westpac’s Kaizaad Mehta, National Head of Health and Industry Specialisation, and Rob Pringle, Relationship Manager.
• Lincoln Place founding Directors, Ben Hindmarsh, and Nicholas Collishaw were on a road trip to one of its “assets” - Sundown Lifestyle Estate in Symonston, ACT – when they took a call from us and revealed their land lease ambitions. “When we started (in 2019) we were not 100% land lease and we had no goal at that point to be single focus,” said Ben. “Then our community in Cessnock (NSW Hunter region) went gangbusters and today we are building 300 (land lease) homes a year.” Nicholas, who was CEO and Managing Director at Mirvac for almost eight years, added they expect Lincoln Place to build in scale to be in the “top three in the (land lease) sector”.
• With construction under way for Phil Usher’s second private aged care venture, the 19-storey Odyssey Chevron Island in QLD’s Gold Coast with 167 apartments, there has been Asian and national interest at $7M each in the eight top floor penthouses apartments, with their own private rooftop decks, and with their own concierge.
• Every land lease operator is building bigger and more prestigious community facilities like it is a race to the top. Stockland appears to want to win, with the longest list of leisure amenities at its new Halcyon Blu in Banya, Caloundra, on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast.
• The Not For Profit Montefiore has lodged a planning proposal to turn its 84-year-old aged care home in Hunters Hill, Sydney, into a multi-storey co-located over 55s and aged care service in another sign of the times

August

• DCM Group held its LEADERS SUMMIT Masterclass: Strategy and Marketing at Sofitel Sydney Darling Harbour on Tuesday 29 August. Over 200 delegates attended live and via video link. Australian Dr Peter Wilton, who leads the Marketing Strategy in the Digital Age Program in the UC Berkeley MBA program, rated in the Top 10 MBA courses internationally, shared his insights into innovation and disruption. One Fell Swoop Managing Partner, Christopher Rooke, said Peter’s presentation was the key takeaway of the day. “It’s a dynamic market,” Christopher said, “and by doing things the way they’ve always been done runs the risk that we’ll become irrelevant to our customer. Aggressive transition from old to new is the key."
• Imagine having 1,700 unsold retirement homes on your books when you have a contract buyout clause requiring residents be paid out at six months. This was the situation when Tony Randello accepted the offer to move from CEO of Lendlease Retirement over to just-acquired Aveo Group by Canadian investment fund Brookfield.
• The insatiable demand for premier retirement living and land lease communities is evident in two stories – Mbark selling 10 units in a ballot in ninety seconds and Ingenia Communities building a second $10 million clubhouse at its Nature’s Edge LLC on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast. Glen Brown is also doing great things with Reside Communities in southeast QLD.
• The Not For Profit AdventCare’s retirement village Pavilions Blackburn Lake in Melbourne, won Best Retirement Village Development Award and Best Luxury Retirement Living Award at the Property Council of Australia’s National Retirement Living Awards in June. The awards were for Stage 1, built by Hutchinson Builders, which has 41 apartments, all occupied. Stage 2 has 66 apartments and 51 have been sold will open in November.
• The Links Southwest Rocks, on the NSW Mid North Coast, is owned and operated by the family-run, privately-owned Sea Spirit Lifestyle Communities. “We first started this project in 2018 and envisage 2025 will be our completion year,” Marketing Manager Jesse Rodrigues said. “It has been a journey, to say the least …. there is still, a marathon left to run.”
• New Zealand’s Summerset Group’s third of seven Victorian villages is approved by City of Monash Council. They want to invest $1 billion into Australia.

September

• Scott Elliott, Palm Lake Group Managing Director, has more than 10,000 people living in his 24 resorts but he knows that thousands more people aged over 50 want to join them. He reveals a pipeline of over 2000 new homes.
• Judy Mayfield, re-elected President of the Association of Residents of Queensland Retirement Villages (ARQRV) for the 10th time, said some village operators are taking it upon themselves to raise the age of entry into villages up to 75, potentially maximising the DMF margin for operators. This is also placing bigger pressures on rersidents after hours when village managers are not on site.
• The debacle with planning laws in NSW is illustrated by Uniting NSW.ACT’s bid to expand its site in NSW’s Northern Rivers. It said in April last year it will spend $150 million turning its Uniting Kingscliff residential aged care home into an integrated site featuring about 235 independent retirement living apartments and 120 residential aged care beds, including dementia care places. Now due to a furious community backlash, it has drastically changed its proposals and more changes may be needed. The delays mean the cost has ballooned to $200 million and it is nothing like originally proposed.
• Alex Jimenez’ Riverbend is set to be a major retirement living brand with multiple LLC and village properties set to launch.
• Aveo Group has introduced new contracts – Now, Later and Bond - across its 92 retirement communities, offering three payment options.

October

• Diversified property developer Mirvac has entered the growth market of over 55s developments in a deal with Pacific Equity Partners (PEP) to buy Singaporean investment firm GIC’s 95% stake in Serenitas for $1B, which started business just five years ago.
• With the build time falling slightly to 23 weeks, the listed land lease, rental, and holiday park operator Ingenia Communities, in a 1Q FY24 update, said new land lease communities Drift at Bargara (pictured), 13km east of Bundaberg, Queensland, and Element Fullerton Cove in Port Stephens, 160km northeast of Sydney, will launch this month.
• Two words have led Lifestyle Communities taking Stockland, the biggest residential property developer in Australia which is aiming to be the leader in over 55s land lease development, to the Federal Court over the promotional use of the term ‘’lifestyle communities’’.
• Rental village operator Eureka Group has acquired for $44 million a total of 321 occupied units after buying the six Ingenia Gardens’ rental villages in Western Australia.
• John Wood, the founder of National Lifestyle Villages, which was sold to GIC and Tasman Capital Partners in 2018, when he became Director of Business Development at the new entity Serenitas, is behind a new operator Providence Lifestyle Group.
• Co-Founder and Managing Director James Kelly announced Lifestyle Communities has bought a 10ha site in Clyde, 48km southeast of Melbourne’s CBD, and a 13ha site in Inverloch. The acquisitions will take the total number of homes under management or to be developed to just short of 6,500 homes in 32 communities.

November

• DCM Institute's Village Summit was a highlight of the year, with feedback overwhelmingly positive. 600 Village Management professionals across the country heard some insightful speeches with world renowned motivational speaker Matt Church starring in each event.   
• Simon Owen’s resignation as Managing Director and Chief Executive of Ingenia Communities is the end of a retirement living era. He has led two small village operators to being listed on the ASX and taken Ingenia from an unloved basket case to a thriving $1.65 billion sector leader.
• The O’Shea brothers have pushed the boundaries by stating clearly that TriCare’s nine villages in Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria are only for people aged 75 and above.
• GemLife’s flagship resort Moreton Bay to have two pavilions over 4040sqm to service over 500 homes. 33% of homes in Stage 1, starting at $785,000, were under contract or on hold within just two weeks of launch.
• Roger Kwok’s Arcadia Group celebrated seven people have been residing at Arcadia Group’s village since it opened 20 years ago.
• The burgeoning reputation of LDK Seniors’ Living, founded by village veteran Paul Browne, is reflected in the interest in its third continuum of care private business with $150M in net sales for its yet to be opened Amberfield Village without advertising.

December

• We have visited hundreds of retirement villages across the country. In our opinion, the just opened The Green Tarragindi Retirement Village by RetireAustralia is perhaps the best project we have experienced thanks to its suburban infill, the sense of space, the flow of communal areas, generous apartments, and bigger community interconnection.
• Ryman Healthcare in announcing its 1H24 results to the NZX, said it had put on hold the proposed $200 million Ringwood East Retirement Village, 31km east of Melbourne's CBD, which commenced construction last year. New Zealand’s largest operator also announced it is selling two New Zealand village land sites, and another proposed village in Auckland, has been put on hold, together with the planned expansion of another village also in Auckland.
• Celebrating 12 months in the role, Retirement Living Council Executive Director Daniel Gannon has produced a 56-page manifesto tailored for both federal and state governments on why retirement living communities can solve the housing crisis and save $1 billion a year in health costs. Better Housing for Better Health is the data and document that the sector has badly needed to raise it from being positioned on the horizon to front and centre in policy discussion.
• The final edition of SATURDAY subscription magazine for 2023 features HammondCare CEO Mike Baird and his daughters Laura and Cate, who reveal their chosen careers.