Busting the retirement village aged care myth

Many people who are considering buying a home in a retirement village want a community that has an aged care facility on-site, so that if they need higher care at a later date they can simply move a few doors down into the nursing wing.

This assumption about care is a common misconception among people considering retirement villages and I’ll tell you why…

Firstly, 95% of the Australian population aged over 65 years choose to age in their own homes and the bulk of the care industry is set up to cater to this market. There are any number of care services that can be brought into your home to help you stay there as long as possible, so unless you need constant care or supervision you can stay in your own home. The same applies to retirement villages – if you need care you can arrange this with an external provider and have the care brought into your home in the retirement village (this typically applies whether the village provides care or not). This means you don’t have to find a retirement village that has an aged care facility on site.

Secondly, many people assume that if they live in a retirement village that provides aged care, once they need the aged care they simply move into the aged care facility. Not so. Retirement village operators that offer aged care typically only do so in a limited way, because they make their money from the sale of independent living units, not running aged care beds. Therefore the ratio of aged care beds to independent living units in a retirement village is low. There is no guarantee that when you need higher care that a bed in the on-site facility will be available for you.

Finally, the move from your independent living unit into the on-site aged care facility, whether it is within the same retirement village or not, typically requires you as the resident to execute a sale of your independent living unit and the purchase of a bond to move into the aged care facility. The nature of retirement village purchase contracts position the bulk of the fees and charges associated with your retirement village lifestyle into the exit and resale of your unit. The high fees that can sometimes be charged mean that you may not have enough money remaining to fund your entry into the on-site aged care facility.

So unless you need a level of care right now, or have a debilitating illness that destines you to requiring care in the medium term, I think there is no need to restrict your retirement village search to only those facilities that provide aged care.

PS. If you do need aged care, make sure you check out my post on supported living HERE. Also, check out Rachel Lane & Noel Whittaker’s new book Aged Care, Who Cares? to help you navigate the complexities of Australia’s aged care system.