In its Budget Submission The Retirement Living Council, in conjunction with Ansell Strategic, wants to help older Australians who are “asset rich, income poor” move more easily into retirement villages.
The RLC, which secured $5.2 million over three years to fund its Shared Care concept in the Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook 2024-25, wants "significant reforms" to the Age Pension asset test threshold and the abolition of the Commonwealth Rent Assistance (CRA), levelling the playing field with land lease operators.
A retirement village resident is deemed to be a homeowner (even if they do not have freehold or strata title of their unit) when their ingoing contribution is more than the difference between the homeowner ($314,000 single) and non-homeowner ($566,000) asset threshold. This means, if a retirement village resident pays an ingoing contribution higher than $252,000, they are ineligible for CRA.
The RLC wants to change this.
“These transformative changes could enable an additional 94,000 seniors to access retirement village options, increasing housing availability for younger Australians
nationwide,” Executive Director Daniel Gannon said."If adopted, the ‘Homes for All Australians: Removing Rightsizing Roadblocks’ initiative will improve the quality of life for older Australians while reducing pressure on public
housing, hospitals, and aged care services.“This means there are 94,000 reasons for Prime Minister Albanese to support these changes and the lives of so many older Australians.”
Former Executive Director Ben Myers in a Pre-Budget submission in 2022 unsuccessfully sought rental assistance to prospective village residents.
