Stockland supports Productivity Commission
Stockland supports the Productivity Commission’s research paper, which advocates for the better provision of downsizing options and financial incentives that will help senior Australians to free up capital to fund their retirement.
“We also support any reforms that will encourage and enable more Australians to benefit from home care as and when the need arises, rather than relying on more costly residential aged care, and we support reforms intended to improve ‘financial viability, transparency and consumer sovereignty’.”
Stockland estimates that the retirement living industry in Australia will need to develop approximately 100,000 new homes over the next 20 years to accommodate Australia’s ageing population. However, as one of Australia’s most active developers of new retirement living homes, building around 300 new homes per year, Stockland says more needs to be done to unlock and provision welllocated sites for low maintenance, age-appropriate housing to meet the future needs of Australia’s ageing population.
“Our research tells us that seniors who move into retirement living villages across Australia tend to live independently longer, eventually entering aged care on average five years later than ‘empty nesters’ who stay in their family home.
The Deferred Management Fees (or exit fees) model, which is generally applied by most retirement living operators in Australia, can be an effective way for seniors to defer part of the cost of acquiring a home in a retirement village. The DMF model provides an income stream for the operator while, importantly, enabling retirees to free up equity, usually from the sale of their previous home, thereby giving them the extra capital they need to fund their retirement. Stockland applies the DMF model and also supports greater flexibility that would assist in providing retirees with alternate financial models.
“In addition to providing low maintenance homes where ideas of ‘community’ and ‘social inclusion’ are central, retirement villages naturally aggregate seniors for the provision of more efficient and convenient healthcare and associated age-specific services,” explained Stephen Bull. “
Stockland owns and operates 69 Retirement Living villages across Australia, representing a total of around 9,500 homes. Its villages are collectively home to approximately 11,000 residents.
About Stockland
Stockland (ASX: SGP) was founded in 1952 and has grown to become Australia’s largest diversified property group – owning, developing and managing a large portfolio of shopping centres, residential communities, retirement living villages, office and industrial assets. Stockland was recognised by the S&P Dow Jones Sustainability Indices (DJSI) as the as the global real estate sector leader for 2015-16, demonstrating world leadership across the areas of stakeholder engagement, customer relationship management, supply chain management, biodiversity and climate change strategy. Stockland was recognised as the Regional Sector Leader for Listed, Australian, Diversified Property Companies in the 2015 GRESB Report. www.stockland.com.au
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