Shane Nicholson, National Director - Health, Aged Care & Retirement at Commercial Collective, said “the market for retirement living is very strong with demand for retirement villages continuing to increase since 2020 and continuing post COVID-19”.
“The continued flight to retirement living has been incredibly strong during and increasingly so post COVID-19, with retirees appreciating more than ever the sense of security, community, and peace of mind that retirement living accommodation provide,” says Shane.
“This strong demand for retirement living product has in turn driven demand from operators to purchase certain types of retirement village product,” Shane added after he sold Marmong Waters Retirement Village at Booragul in Lake Macquarie, 90 minutes north by car from Sydney CBD.
“It did not go to market. I picked up the phone and the seller got the price he was asking for. I could have sold this retirement village three times over,” said Shane about the sale to Country Club Living.
"This village hits the sweet spot as it has three attributes that buyers are looking for:
- A quality, built and finished community facility
- Units that are built and occupied under fair, but commercial loan lease contracts which largely de-risk the purchase
- Quality DA approved land for further expansion”.
Shane said that these opportunities are more likely to be found in the regional areas rather than in metropolitan areas where villages are mostly built-out.
“There are a significant number of buyers, both not for profit and privates who want quality metropolitan retirement villages, the profiles are different” says Shane. “In metro areas the demand is high for villages that were built post 2000, of decent scale (one hundred ILUs or more), with the maturity of residents being a key factor to achieving the best outcome for sellers,” says Shane who sold Tulich Family Communities portfolio to BaptistCare in March.
“The market really is good for both buyers and sellers at the moment with full but fair prices being achieved. If the seller is prepared to divest at an attractive but fair price, it will be sold” added Shane, who also successfully transacted Presbyterian Aged Care NSW & ACT’s aged care facility Westcott at Stockton in Newcastle’s CBD, to the family-owned Moran Health Care Group in March.