Reforms to provide greater transparency on retirement villages

NSW Department of Customer Service

The NSW Government is improving oversight of retirement villages with new requirements for operators to disclose key data such as unit sales and financial statements to support oversight of the sector and provide ease of access to information for current and future residents.

NSW Fair Trading Commissioner Natasha Mann said consumers would be able to easily view key information from the 691 retirement villages in NSW.

“The data will be easily accessed online and will empower consumers to make better choices about where they would like to live in retirement,” ​Ms Mann said.​

“These changes will bring greater transparency to the industry and improve government oversight of the sector.

“These reforms build on previous improvements to ensure the sector was more financially sustainable for residents, to help reduce bill shock and increase transparency.”

The NSW Government has implemented an extensive reform agenda for retirement villages since the 2017 inquiry into the sector that was led by Kathryn Greiner.

These reforms improved access to exit entitlements, made the transition to aged care easier, capped the period of time residents paid recurrent charges for general services and required operators to maintain and publish an asset management plan for each retirement village they manage.

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/Public Release.