A new report card reveals two thirds of retirement village development applications around Australia take more than 365 days to be assessed, while the country ages and housing supply remains tight.
The Retirement Living Council (RLC) has released its national planning report card – called Retirement ready – which ranks state-based planning systems and recommends a suite of practical reforms.
The report card has been prepared together with leading national planning agency Urbis and has made the following key findings:
- 67 per cent of development applications for retirement villages take more than 12 months to receive a determination, while 23 per cent take more than two years. This timeframe balloons out to 33 per cent in NSW.
- Retirement living is unable to compete with other land uses due to higher upfront costs and complexities in design and built form requirements, leading to lower financial returns for operators.
- Outside of NSW, retirement living and seniors’ housing is missing from key strategic planning documents across the country.
- There is a distinct lack of understanding of the retirement housing product with 70 per cent of operators believing assessor understanding is poor or very poor.
- South Australia has topped national rankings, with 58 points out of 100, followed by NSW, ACT, VIC, QLD, TAS and WA.
The report puts forward 12 practical recommendations to make planning systems across the country ‘retirement ready’ and provide more age-friendly housing supply. Key recommendations include:
1. Establishing minimum land allocations for the development of retirement communities in under-supplied areas.
2. Significant zoning or development bonuses should be offered to incentivise the development of retirement villages, akin to those given to social and affordable housing.
3. State governments to establish clear policies for increasing age-friendly developments through the introduction of targets in strategic regional and metropolitan plans.
4. Planning authorities should work with industry to identify high-need locations and ageing hot spots.
RLC Executive Director Daniel Gannon says:
“We are in a race to house the nation. Governments at all levels need to ensure they are ‘retirement ready’.
"We now know that 67 per cent of retirement village development applications take more than 365 days to complete assessment, while 23 per cent take more than 730 days.
“Given the number of Australians aged over 75 will increase by 85 per cent over the next decade and a half and retirement villages are effectively operating at full capacity, this is alarming and unacceptable.“In many ways, this report card represents a ‘fail’ for most jurisdictions that are seemingly ignoring Australia’s demographic changes and what it means for housing supply.
“It’s now clear that planning systems aren’t ‘retirement ready’ at the same time that 710,000 Australians are preparing to retire within the next five years.
“This is frankly contemptuous at a time when the country is ageing, housing supply is in deficit and as the aged care sector breaks under the weight of increasing demand.
“Governments are crying out for more housing supply while at the same time holding it back. You can’t make this stuff up.
“More red tape and complexity in planning systems won’t help build the homes that older Australians need, but they can dampen supply very easily.
“Given the proven benefits that age-friendly communities deliver for older Australians, governments should be throwing the kitchen sink at approving more of them – and fast.”
Urbis Associate Director, Kylie Newcombe says:
“Retirement living plays a crucial role in providing age-friendly housing, enabling older residents to remain integral parts of their communities.
“Planning is a critical enabler for delivering the housing that the retirement living sector provides for older Australians. However, a significant 70 per cent of the industry feels let down by the system, citing that authorities have a 'poor' understanding of retirement living.
“As our ageing population continues to grow, it's more important than ever that retirement living is addressed in strategic plans and policies by state and local governments.
“A promising starting point could be setting explicit targets for retirement living, backed by a consistent set of controls and design guidance for application across the state.”
Retirement ready: national planning report card can be accessed here.
