A new trend that is gathering speed is homes in retirement villages coming available as rental homes.
This is good news for people who want to join a village but can’t sell the family home in the time required.
The rent will vary on the value of the home of course, but most village operators price the rental as a support plan while you sell your home rather than a major income program. They also understand that it could take you up to a year to 18 months to get that sale in some regions.
Be aware that most villages don’t promote this rental service – you have to ask about it. But don’t hesitate to ask – most are keen to have this conversation!
You negotiate with the village operators to rent the village home you like. This works for a lot of people, because they need to get into ‘safer’ accommodation.
Typically, this will be if you are coming out of hospital after say a hip operation and your family home is built on a slope and has lots of stairs.
You need a ‘flat’ home and you need support around you to buy groceries, take the garbage out, look after the garden and help organise for home care to visit – and generally know that there are people around you that have your welfare at heart.
Across Australia, there are also around 300 pure rental villages. (This compares with 2,200 retirement villages).
Pure rental villages give you a smaller home that you can rent week by week (but most people stay for years), plus they will provide say one major meal a day within the rental fee. Their cost is around 80% of the pension, to give you an idea.
So, you do have options.
You can find all these villages and the contact details on our website villages.com.au here.
Our advice: pick say three villages you like and call them. You will get the answers you need to plan ahead and they won’t ‘pressure sell’ you, we promise. (Most villages only have about 10% of their homes come available each year).
