Last Wednesday the Presbyterian Church of Queensland board placed the organisation in receivership, thanks to its disastrous investments in retirement living and aged care.

With a 90-year history evaporating, the receivership includes its schools, congregations and other community services.

The first sign of troubles was in 2017 when PresCare sold its partially developed retirement village at Corinda (Brisbane) to recently established Aura Holdings, set up by Tim Russell and Mark Taylor following their exit from RetireAustralia.

Approximately 34 homes had been built by PresCare but sales have fallen severely behind. Aura stepped in and within 12 months, they were opening a four-storey 53-apartment village block (pictured right).

They have since gone on to develop three more stages.

Meanwhile, PresCare in 2017 had also entered into the first Opco/Propco financing deal for Justin Laboo’s Catalyst Health REIT. It was to provide a $30 million greenfield funding deal with a 20-year lease back for an aged care home in Townsville.

(Laboo was the chief of Aveo for seven years to 2012).

The expansion into three new aged care homes is what brought PresCare to tears. It is Catalyst Health that triggered insolvency and receivership actions.

It was August last year that the Church announced that aged care and retirement living is too hard and that they were withdrawing from the market.

Following the budget announcements last week, we can expect an increasing number of Not For Profit boards coming to the same conclusion, particularly around home care and aged care services, but by extension retirement village operations.