New Zealand’s second biggest retirement village operator, Summerset Group, has broken ground on its first of its five continuum of care model villages in Australia: at Cranbourne North, 39km southeast of Melbourne’s CBD. The first residents are due to move in early 2023.

Summerset now has five sites earmarked for new villages. It announced in October it had paid just over $33 million for a 1.83ha site at Oakleigh South, 17km southeast of Melbourne’s CBD, which overlooks the 17th and 18th holes of the adjacent Metropolitan Golf Club. Summerset has 36 retirement villages completed or under development in New Zealand, and another five land sites in New Zealand.

Across Melbourne, New Zealand’s largest retirement village operator Ryman Healthcare, has five existing sites, two sites being built, one site approved for development and three proposed sites.