Monday 19 August 2024
MEDIA RELEASE
730-day+ assessment timeframe for NSW retirement villages
A new report card reveals a third of retirement village development applications in NSW take more than 730 days to be assessed, despite the state’s ageing population and housing supply crisis.
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 urban consultancy Urbis and has made the following key findings:
- 67 per cent of development applications for retirement village take more than 12 months to receive a determination, and while 23 per cent take more than two years across the country – in NSW that timeframe balloons out to 33 per cent.
- NSW remains the most complex planning and approvals system in Australia with more than 500 planning schemes in operation.
- NSW is the only jurisdiction that recognises age-friendly and retirement villages through its state planning system.
- The NSW planning system finishes in second place on the national leaderboard with 51.2 points out of 100, trailing SA but ahead of the ACT, VIC, QLD, TAS and WA.
In addition to key recommendations for all states – including minimum land allocations for retirement communities in under supplied areas and providing additional floor space and height bonuses – the report puts forward four recommendations to make NSW’s planning system ‘retirement ready’ to provide more age-friendly housing supply for its ageing population.
- Review process to consider whether a planning proposal and State Significant Development process could run concurrently.
- Create a consistent policy for all councils that only significant developments are advertised to the public, and for more minor projects writing only to surrounding residents for feedback.
- Consider a priority assessment team for approvals of development applications and interagency coordination with power to direct agencies to respond within time constraints.
- Extension of affordable housing floorspace bonuses to retirement villages.
Comments attributable to RLC Executive Director, Daniel Gannon
“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 33 per cent take more than 730 days across NSW.
“The new Council league table tells us the average assessment timeframe for residential development applications across NSW last month was 107 days – more than 600 days faster than a lot of retirement village applications.
“Given NSW has the biggest cohort of over-75s in Australia and retirement villages are effectively operating at full capacity, this is alarming and unacceptable.
“Governments are crying out for more housing supply while at the same time holding it back. You can’t make this stuff up.
“Like the rest of the country, NSW faces a number of significant challenges related to housing supply, hospital and healthcare capacity, aged care and home care availability.
“NSW might rank second, but a score of 51/100 at school or university is barely a pass.
“While NSW has previously been heralded for its progressive attitude toward age-friendly developments like the former Seniors Housing SEPP, it’s questionable whether its planning system is ‘retirement ready’ at the same time that 710,000 Australians are preparing to retire within the next five years.
“When we look around the country, NSW presents a lot of frustration for housing investors and developers, with more than 500 planning schemes compared to only one in a place like South Australia.
“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.”
Comments attributable to Urbis Associate Director, Kylie Newcombe:
“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.”
ENDS
Media contact: Joe Schwab | 0402 687 890 | [email protected]