'Frankly contemptuous': Retirement Living Council slam State Budgets over housing aged

Daniel Gannon, Executive Director of the Property Council of Australia's retirement living body, said the latest Budgets in Queensland, South Australia, Victoria and Western Australia delivered the same old stock standard approach with zero creativity or strategy.

“This lack of vision is frankly contemptuous to the 4.2 million retirees around Australia and the 710,000 people looking to retire in the next five years," Daniel said. “Governments need to get creative and expand their vision for older Australians and their ageing needs.”

The Retirement Living Council has been asking State Governments to put in place minimum land allocations for retirement villages in greenfield and master-planned settings, including targets like those already in place for social and affordable housing. “At the moment, it’s radio silence on age-friendly housing solutions." Daniel (pictured) said the highlights reel from Budget season is short: 

• The WA Government provided cost of living, energy, water and local government bill relief to Pensioners;
• In SA, seniors health card holders had their cost-of-living concession doubled;
• The Victorian Government provided $31 million to support aged care facilities;
• Queensland Pensioners received a rebate on electricity bills; and
• The Australian Government is still yet to confirm whether retirement units are included in the Prime Minister’s 1.2 million new homes target.

“State governments tend to have a celebrated focus on first home buyers forgetting that if ‘rightsizing’ disincentives can be removed, hundreds of thousands of homes in the middle of the market could be freed up," Daniel said. “If older Australians are incentivised to ‘rightsize’ into homes better suited to their ageing needs, it leads to better health outcomes for older people, reduced interaction with hospitals and aged care facilities, and more homes re-entering housing markets for younger people."