The Not For Profit is a success story increasing its workforce by 5% in the past year, with 75 workers brought in from overseas, and its annual report revealing it has turned a deficit into a profit.
RFBI has a turnover of $226 million, with revenue up 32%. It owns and operates 20 retirement villages, 22 residential care villages and operates home care services in NSW and ACT. The occupancy rate in its villages remains at 91%.
Royal Freemasons’ Benevolent Institution is in “early planning” for new retirement living communities in Bellingen, on the NSW Mid-North Coast, and Leppington, 52km southwest of Sydney’s CBD, after buying a 20,000msq site, and is also looking to redevelop RFBI Concord Community Village, 10km west of Sydney’s CBD and RFBI Holt Masonic Village in the ACT.
Its $70 million expansion of Dubbo Masonic Village, adding 164 retirement living units and a clubhouse, is underway. It is also redeveloping RFBI Hawkins Masonic Village and RFBI Cessnock Masonic Village to increase residential care and retirement living numbers.
In the past year it has created a new role of Retirement Living Operations Manager, with Anthony Tsapicounis appointed, and Karl Bounader appointed Head of Retirement Living, another newly-created role.
“We’ve also made significant progress in modernising our properties, investing over $8 million in refurbishments across our retirement villages over the last four years. With an additional $5.8 million planned for 2024/25, we are committed to creating modern, comfortable living spaces that our residents can be proud of,” Karl said.
It has reduced the time between vacancy of a property to re-occupancy by 80 days, this also includes renovations of the property in some cases. In 2023/24, 60 units were sold with an average price of $417,000.
“We are dedicated to building new villages and refurbishing existing ones. This year, we have embarked on several major construction projects to expand our capacity and enhance our services. We have undertaken extensive refurbishment of our existing villages ensuring they meet the highest standards of safety and modernity,” CEO Frank Price said.
