Self-confessed nomads Trevor and Pat Thomas had travelled around Australia for three years before settling at Halcyon Waters at Hope Island.
While they enjoyed their time in the community, they felt it was time to try something different as they wanted to fulfill a long-term goal and take on the challenge of renovating a property.
“Selling and moving out of a Halcyon community is easy,” Trevor said.
“It is in our nature to move on,” Pat said. “More particularly, Trevor’s the one who needs a project and he’s been wanting to renovate a house or unit for quite some time.”
The pair sold their Halcyon home and have just refurbished an apartment at Main Beach.
They found a buyer for their house within four weeks and the process was handled by the Halcyon Waters sales team.
“It was easy to talk with [the sales team] and understand the price expectation; they obviously know the market really well,” Trevor said.
“With the paperwork, it’s so easy compared to a normal contract, because you’re transferring an agreement, not a land title. It was a very simplified process – just a two-page document.”
“At the end, the process was similar to if we were selling with any real estate agent and there were no exit fees; all capital gains were a hundred per cent to us.”
Rachel Lane has been working in financial services for 18 years providing financial and legal advice to senior Australians and their families.
“It is very common for people to feel confused by the finances and apprehensive at the idea of leaving the family home,” Ms Lane said
She points out that while it may be difficult to distinguish between a retirement village and a land lease community, the legal and financial differences were important.
“Retirement village operators are prohibited from making a profit from the general service charges of the village; their profit comes from the exit fee,” she said.
“The general service charges are very much like a body corporate in that they cover the cost of running the village and residents are able to have input into the budget.
“Different rules apply to operators of land lease communities, who often make their profit from their site fees – hence site fees tend to be higher than the general service charges of a retirement village, but this is offset by the fact that there are no exit fees.”
