With bed licences getting the boot from 1 July 2025, the Federal Government has theoretically freed up operators to build wherever they want. But with customers becoming more vocal that they don’t want residential care and the cost of construction exploding, the former COTA Chief Executive and former Acting Inspector-General of Aged Care predicts the ‘tipping point’ for “institutional” aged care is here.

As the sector grapples with the challenges of raising the capital for expensive new aged care beds, the question of ‘why build new beds at all?’ remains unanswered.

As we have reported, the cost of building an aged care bed has doubled since the COVID-19 pandemic, with land, development and operational costs pushing the average bed price to over $600,000 in some metropolitan areas.

But there is another little-discussed question holding back the deliv