Like most first world countries, Australia has experienced a spike in our aging population. Baby boomers are now in the 57 to 75-year-old age bracket, with many retired or planning to retire over the next eight years.
Demand for retirement living facilities has escalated, along with a range of incorporated services including entertainment and wellness facilities, and medical and healthcare services.
However, while aged care facilities are exempt from some planning provisions, we haven’t seen the same provisions being made for retirement facilities. It’s time for this sector to be given more support to help deliver more lifestyle villages.
We are in a housing crisis and the Victorian State Government is committed to providing 80,000 additional dwellings each year over the next 10 years. This challenging goal is already proving difficult to achieve, despite high consumer demand, owing to a range of factors including high interest rates, labour costs, and building materials.
The approval process and ultimate construction of more retirement living accommodation facilities can certainly be part of the greater housing solution by offering an appealing alternative form of housing for an aging market and ‘freeing up’ existing housing stock in established suburbs.
Retirement living has come a long way in the last few decades. The traditional low-rise townhouses within a gated community still have their place in the market, but retirement living has expanded to take on the format of apartment style models in inner and middle ring suburbs complemented by other on-site services.
This might include cafés or communal dining and living spaces, cinema rooms, gymnasiums, retail, childcare, or on-site medical facilities. The living format is often designed to allow tenants to experience a high internal amenity without requiring time to maintain large gardens or manage ongoing property maintenance. Apartment living style retirement facilities also ensure residents can remain in central locations close familiar neighbourhoods but with a slightly smaller floorplan to upkeep.
Car parking is still provided at an appropriate rate, recognising that most retirees want the freedom of movement enabled by private vehicles (possibly with one vehicle rather than two per household), but these new developments are also located in accessible locations close to public transport and nearby shopping facilities.
It might be time to consider additional exemptions in the planning scheme to help facilitate the approval of Retirement Living projects.
Provisions in the planning scheme currently acknowledge that Residential Aged Care Facilities have different needs and requirements in terms of their internal amenity and external appearance. While a retirement living apartment project is more akin to traditional apartment style living, the State Government should consider exempting some proposals from third party appeal rights to help facilitate this type of development in locations where there is strong demand and a lack of supply for retirement living proposals.
An instance where appeal rights might easily have been omitted is the centrally located retirement living facility at 1-9 Allen Street & 777-781 Warrigal Road, Oakleigh.
This development abuts a linear park and contains a small internal cinema and café that available for both resident and community use. The development is proximate to Chadstone Shopping Centre and surrounding shopping and dining offerings. The site has limited residential interface but still had to be advertised, a potentially unnecessary stage given the rigorous assessment of Council.
The development was ultimately approved.
For queries relating to retirement living facilities, reach out to mail@ratio.com.au.
