The Retirement Living Council (RLC) welcomes the opportunity to provide a submission to the consultation for the development of Canberra’s age-friendly city plan 2025-35.
The RLC is the national peak body for Australia’s retirement living sector, championing policies that deliver agefriendly homes and better services in retirement for the 250,000 older Australians who call one of these communities home.
The RLC sits within the Property Council of Australia’s national advocacy team and is the most powerful voice of the sector, representing for-profit and not-for-profit owners and operators of retirement villages and seniors’ living communities.
Retirement villages are governed by the Retirement Villages Act 2012 and provide affordable accommodation and care for Territorians over 55 years of age.
As you are aware, Australia is facing a dramatic demographic shift with the number of Australians aged over 75 forecast to increase from 2 million to 3.4 million by 2040.
With the number of people aged over 75 in the ACT set to more than double to 48,000 by 2040, we welcome this timely update of the Canberra age-friendly city plan to ensure this growing cohort of Territorians can age with dignity in communities that are designed to support them to live life to the fullest.
The focus areas in the discussion paper align with the significant value proposition retirement living offers to individual residents, federal, state and territory governments, and the wider community.
When older Australians rightsize into purpose built, age friendly accommodation, research shows that compared to older Australians not living in a retirement community, residents are 15 per cent more physically active, 41 per cent happier, five times more socially active, twice as likely to catch up with family or friends, and they experience reduced levels of depression and loneliness.
Retirement communities provide better housing that leads to better health outcomes for older Australians
