Did you know that 80 people sell their family home and buy into a retirement village across Australia every day of the week?
All up, 200,000 people live in retirement villages and these people are the best salespeople for future residents – usually locals who hear about the village by word-of-mouth.
However the reputation of retirement villages receives a regular hit in the media – it feels like it’s a three monthly cycle that the media searches for a bad story.
And they find them. With 2000 retirement villages across the country not every one is perhaps perfect. As a result village operators have developed a code of conduct which they are committing to deliver on. It commences in three weeks’ time, on 1 January. It sets minimum standards for the relationship with village residents.
The cornerstone of the code is for operators and staff to act with integrity.
Sean Rooney (pictured), CEO at LASA, says, “This Retirement Living Code of Conduct intends to set standards above and beyond statutory obligations.
“The code covers all aspects of a resident’s experience in a retirement community: from signing the contract to enter the community, their on-site experience of living in the retirement community, through to their decision to leave the community”.
It’s a voluntary code, so if you or friends live in a village you should ask the management if they are taking up the code.
