Rising demand for retirement living has prompted calls for age-friendly communities to be a key pillar of the national housing strategy.
The latest Procore/Property Council Survey indicated strong confidence in construction activity in Australia’s retirement living industry over the next 12 months.
It stated confidence was at its highest since December 2021, outperforming other sub-sectors, and forecast to be greater than residential, office, retail and hotels combined.
Retirement Living Council Executive Director Daniel Gannon said the positive sentiment should prompt the Federal Government to include retirement communities as a key delivery component of achieving the National Housing Accord target to build 1.2 million new homes by 2029.
“The Master Builders Association forecast that the Australian Government will fall short of its target by 112,675 homes, but there’s a silver lining to this scenario,” Mr Gannon said.
“In order to maintain existing market demand, the retirement living industry requires 67,000 units to be built by 2030.
“This would represent 59 percent of the gap identified by the MBA, meaning age-friendly communities could help the government solve Australia’s housing supply problem.”
Mr Gannon said while the survey was largely positive, there were still a number of variables that could place a handbrake on much needed supply.
“There is still much uncertainty across all property sub-sectors, with construction prices, materials and labour continuing to drive uncertainty,” he said.
“The other variable for the retirement living sector is legislative reform, which is taking place in every corner of the country and impacting two thirds of Australia’s retirement living markets.”
Mr Gannon said if these reforms made it harder for operators to build and operate age-friendly communities, it could tighten the supply clamp at a time when confidence was high, construction activity was strong, and when the nation needed housing.”
