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Retirement Villages

17 June 2021

AUTHOR:Kevin Birch

I extracted these comments from an article 3 years

Retirement villages are the new residential growth industry. Look around. They're popping up everywhere, and residents are queuing to get in the door. It wasn't always that way, however. When the concept was first introduced there was a lot of negative feedback – something we don't hear much these days. Units can be sold for the price they are bought (residents actually buy a licence to live in a particular unit, which is called an Occupational Right Agreement). The money returned to the family will be minus any deferred management fee, if applicable.“

And the demand for, and growth of, retirement villages is still increasing in 2021. The challenge is that there is often insufficient appropriately zoned land for such facilities. Obtaining planning consents can be challenging when the land is not zoned for such use. It appears that local authorities are not meeting the demands quickly enough.

Birch Surveyors have been assisting developers with retirement village planning and consenting for the past 15 years. These can be challenging but socially rewarding projects to be involved in, as they can include special housing units, recreational facilities, medical and other health facilities. We currently have several of these projects in the pipeline, and can see the demand increasing as our population ages, and we look for new ways of enjoying our older age.