Opinion: The solution to housing crisis that’s hiding in plain sight

There’s an affordable housing option available to a growing cohort of Australians in an otherwise unaffordable housing market, writes Daniel Gannon.

Queensland is in the grip of a housing crisis.

There’s an affordable housing option available to a growing cohort of Australians in an otherwise unaffordable housing market – and it’s hiding in plain sight.

Retirement communities are a housing solution whose time has come, given the great Australian dream of home ownership is becoming a nightmare for many.

There are 4.6 million people around Australia aged over 65, a number that will grow to
7.1 million by 2043 – a 54 per cent increase in only two decades.

While the demographic and housing outlook is grim, there is a solution to this crisis. The more than 2500 retirement villages across the country can allow residents to maintain independent lifestyle as they age.

By reducing barriers to physical activity and providing access to gyms and fitness facilities, retirement villages help residents remain more active than those living independently in the community and interacting with hospitals and GPs less frequently.

This should be music to the ears of governments everywhere because it results in significant local, state and commonwealth financial savings. To be precise, almost $3.5bn every year.

But the real hero of this story is affordability. Retirement villages provide affordable options for older Queenslanders, with entry prices across Brisbane on average 45 per cent lower than median house prices in similar areas.

The average cost of a two-bedroom unit in a retirement village grew by 14 per cent over the 18 months to December 2022 to $414,000, while median house prices in the same locations over this period rose at twice this rate, to $815,000.

But some retirement village operators have been held up for years by ill-informed councils prioritising ordinary medium-density residential apartments in place of these important age-friendly communities.

And the federal government should increase the asset-free threshold for aged pensioners, allow retirement village residents to access the Home Equity Access Scheme, and continue to reform Commonwealth Rent Assistance.

Until governments get serious about important policy reforms that would unlock and facilitate more supply, our housing problems will continue to get worse.

Daniel Gannon is executive director of the Retirement Living Council