Please see herein the Retirement Living Council’s FY25 Federal Budget submission, outlining key recommendations to help unleash better housing supply that leads to better health outcomes for older Australians.
Australia is experiencing a dramatic demographic shift, propelled by an ageing population.
These changes will have implications for the nation’s socio-economic outlook, including increased demand for healthcare, social services and aged care services.
It is no longer possible to consider the future of residential aged care without discussing the important housing and health value proposition of the retirement and seniors’ living industry.
This is a sector that currently provides purpose designed homes for 250,000 older Australians but is effectively operating at full capacity. There are various state and territory-based planning impediments contributing to delaying the onset of more supply – issues that are not the remit of the commonwealth.
However, retirement communities are the sleeping giant of Australia’s health and housing landscape given the benefits they provide to consumers and governments alike. With this in mind, we present to you the RLC’s submission, containing five key recommendations:
1. Include retirement communities as a key delivery component of achieving the Housing Australia Future Fund target to build 1.2 million new homes nationwide by 2029.
2. Implement the RLC’s ‘Shared Care’ proposal – in the first instance through a pilot program – demonstrating that significant efficiencies and savings to consumers and government can be achieved through a strengthened Home Care delivery framework.
3. Remove incoming purchase price benchmarks for Australians living in retirement communities to allow deeper access to Commonwealth Rental Assistance.
4. Amend existing inconsistencies to allow Australians living in retirement communities to access the Home Equity Access Scheme.
5. Exempt a portion of home sale proceeds for the age pension asset test to reduce the financial
disincentive for those considering ‘rightsizing’ while ensuring the security of their pension long
term.
