City of South Perth’s Collier Park Village “not sustainable” – needs $100M investment

The future of the council-run retirement village is “unsustainable” after warnings there is no money to pay for badly needed upgrades. The City of South Perth has agreed to “seek proposals from experienced retirement village operators to improve and enhance” Collier Park Village and facilitate “ageing in place”. The council has owned and operated Collier Park Village since 1986 but it has been draining the council’s coffers for the past three years.

“Over the past 30 years, community expectations and the standards for retirement living have changed and the needs of older people in retirement living have become more complex,” said a report to the council.

It had an operating loss of $406,721 in the 2022 financial year, up from a $329,299 operating loss the previous year. A report to the council said the Collier Park Village Reserve, which had $427,202 at the end of 2022, was expected to be wiped out.

“An assessment of the capital required to provide a contemporary village able to provide the amenity expected by the market would be in the vicinity of $100 million,” the report said. “Without such an investment, CPV will not be able to compete with other market offerings and the trend of units being attractive to short-term rental arrangements rather than people willing to enter into long-term agreements will continue.”

The retirement village has 169 two-bedroom, one-bathroom self-contained units, a community centre and a former 40-bed aged care hostel building, which closed in 2014.