Be careful: it has happened before

Land lease communities have been booming for a number of years but the operators should be careful. 

Retirement living operators have to get agreement with residents over the annual budget, something that land lease community owners do not. They are not permitted to profit from service fees.

However, news that residents are taking a land lease operator to the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal (NCAT) over site fee increases of more than $225 a week should be a loud warning to the entire land lease community sector.

Because, as retirement village operators will tell you, residents are very good at alerting their local MP.

NSW Fair Trading Minister Anoulack Chanthivong is already coming out and promising new measures against operators.

A 2021 review of the NSW Residential (Land Lease) Communities Act 2013 made 48 recommendations to improve the operation of the Act, including fee increases that were easier to understand and predict.

The recommendations were not adopted by the previous State Government, but the new Minister indicates work is underway to implement the recommendations after being informed of the situation at Kincumber Nautical Village on the NSW Central Coast.

Nearly 40,000 people live in residential land lease communities in NSW and more than 100,000 nationally. 

Do the wrong thing and land lease communities will go the way of the retirement living operators: they will be told to get agreements with the residents before doing anything and lose the right to profit from them.