NSW retirement village operators required to provide government with data

Retirement village operators in NSW have been told it is now a requirement to provide the State Government with data to overcome a “lack of transparency”. Operators have until 30 September to provide the data after NSW Government passed the Retirement Villages Amendment (Operators Obligations) Regulation 2022.

“This Regulation is part of the NSW Government’s response to the 2017 Greiner Inquiry into the NSW Retirement Villages Sector and addresses concerns over the lack of transparency of critical retirement village data needed by the regulator and consumers to make decisions,” said NSW Fair Trading.

There is a requirement for operators to provide data on the following categories to the Secretary of the Department of Customer Service:

• Name, address and contact details for the retirement village and operator
• Information about the Residents Committee (if any)
• Number of units
• Residency type
• Information about complaints handled internally by the operator
• Village contracts or pricing
• Demographic information about residents and staff
• Other management and operation details

Operators are also required to submit the annual data within one month of the end of the financial year of the village. If any of the information changes, they are expected to provide updated data within 21 days of becoming aware of the change. The NSW Government will publish some of the data it feels relevant to consumers in a digital portal available for the public next year.

“As the Warrigal CEO with 10 villages across NSW and several more in development planning, we welcome the amendments to the NSW RVA implemented this week,” said Mark Sewell (pictured), a Foundation Director on the ACCPA Board. “The kind of reforms happening now are, we believe, minimum public reporting obligations for good operators. We consider ourselves more than housing builders. We create places for communities of older people to flourish. This needs psychological safety and trust to be reciprocated. Older people often invest significant amounts, if not their life savings, in a seniors’ village assuming they have a trusted operator who can ensure they are safe now, engaged regularly and have some support should they need it in the future. If all operators do this, we build confidence in our sector and we all win.  “It’s an annual obligation so it shouldn’t be onerous for operators, unless the government fails to provide a clean simple portal that is user-friendly. This is the least they should do.” Added Mark, who, in August, announced he would be retiring October 2022.