Australian Unity has sold its Lifestyle Manor retirement community to WA-based Continuing Health Care Group (CHC) for an undisclosed sum.
The move comes amid Australian Unity’s push into an ageing-in-place strategy for its villages, as evidenced by its purchase of Greengate’s villages and aged care homes last May; according to Executive General Manager of Residential Communities Beverly Smith, the operator has been reshaping its portfolio towards co-located retirement living and small-household aged care over the past three years.
“Unfortunately, we couldn’t source suitable land to add a small-household aged care offering to the Bondi precinct, so we decided to embark on a process to find a suitable provider to purchase Lifestyle Manor. That process resulted in the sale to CHC.
“Under the sale terms, all resident agreements have been transferred to CHC in their existing form and all village employees were offered the opportunity to continue in their current roles with CHC,” she said.
Cam Ansell, Managing Director of Ansell Strategic, who represented Australian Unity during the negotiations, told The Weekly SOURCE that CHC has been a client of Ansell for 20 years, including for the 2014 sale of CHC’s residential aged care services to Mercy Health.
“We continue to see strong demand for retirement villages across Australia, buoyed by strong residential pricing and the opportunities seen for ageing in place as residential aged care moves toward sub-acute service models,” he said.
CHC operates the St Louis Estate in Claremont, WA; the Lifestyle Manor purchase will give it a foothold on the East Coast after its previous bid to open a Sydney aged care home was shot down in 2015.
