2 November 2022
MEDIA RELEASE
RETIREMENT LIVING SECTOR “READY, WILLING AND ABLE” FOR ACHIEVABLE SOLUTIONS
AUSTRALIA’S retirement living sector is delivering age-friendly communities with person-centred services that will keep more older Australians happy, healthy and out of nursing
homes, for longer.
Retirement Living Council Executive Director, Daniel Gannon, said Australia’s retirement
living sector was “ready, willing and able” to deliver more affordable “healthy ageing”
choices for more older Australians.
Mr Gannon said the design, structure and form of age-friendly communities combined with
good access to community and care networks provided the best way to significantly
reduce two of the biggest risk factors leading to illness and hospitalisation (ie, falls and
depression).
“There’s plenty of qualitative and quantitative research from around the world to show that
age-appropriate-housing in age-friendly communities not only supports healthy ageing, but
that it makes for the most economically sustainable health and wellbeing environment,” Mr
Gannon said.
“The congregate housing model built into age-friendly community design can create
economies of scale for more efficient delivery of community, health and aged care
services. This means new models of care can be more easily integrated within age-friendly
communities.”
Mr Gannon said another major benefit was the development of age-friendly communities in
the places where people live can release home equity for cash-strapped seniors, while
increasing the local housing supply for young families.
Noting most people’s preference is to “age-in-place”, the Productivity Commission said the
vast majority of older people in private dwellings was likely to grow as the population ages.
“… to the extent that ageing in place substitutes for other accommodation and care options that
receive a greater government subsidy, it may also be aligned with the governments’ fiscal
sustainability objectives. Although the care needs are typically higher for residential aged care,
ultimately delivering home care requires much less public funding,” said the Commission.
Mr Gannon said age-friendly communities and person-centred services delivered
significant and increasing benefits to residents and all Australian taxpayers, including: less use of primary
health care services; avoided hospitalisation and reduced length of stay; and delayed entry into residential aged care (for residents).
Research undertaken for the RLC supports these findings and shows retirement village
residents save governments more than $2.3 billion annually through reduced spending on
health and aged care.
