BUS100 - Retirement Villages: Critical Thinking Assessment, Semester 1

This assignment critically analyzes the retirement village sector, focusing on Stockland Retirement Villages in Australia. The paper begins by defining retirement villages and highlighting Stockland's innovations, driven by values of Community, Accountability, Respect and Excellence (CARE) and ...Read More

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Retirement Villages

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Task 1: Retirement Villages
Retirement villages are a type of housing that provides a variety of specialized accommodation
and facilities for older people (Lim et.al, 2019). As Australia is witnessing a significant rise in its
old age population, this industry has grown exponentially especially over the last few decades
with both private and not-for-profit players joining the sector. This paper attempts to study and
critically analyse the Stockland Retirement Villages. Stockland Corporation Limited is a
private, Australian, property development company that has business in real estates, shopping
centres and retirement villages (Stockland, 2020). Headquartered in Sydney it was touted as one
of the top three retirement living operators within Australia, with 62 established villages across
five states as on June 2019 (Stockland, 2020). Guided by values of Community, Accountability,
Respect and Excellence (CARE) the company aims at providing retirement homes that are of
high quality, low maintenance, community-oriented and suited to the current lifestyle of the
country’s aged population. It is driven by an objective to shape and innovate thriving retirement
village communities, through an integrated sustainability strategy (Stockland, 2020). ‘Easy
everyday living’ being a priority, it has invested generously in innovating and upgrading its
retirement homes while adhering to the Liveable Housing Australia (LHA) guidelines
(Stockland, 2020).
Task 2: Opinion
However, while the innovations undertaken by Stockland in this field are commendable I do not
consider them useful in achieving the ultimate goal of providing a holistically sound living
experience to the elderly of Australia.
Task 3: Critical Thinking and Analysis
The retirement village sector is still in a rather formative stage in Australia despite gaining
considerable ground and popularity in the last few decades. Though driven by the noble mission
of providing safe and comfortable living to the senior citizens of Australia the sector faces
several challenges; the problem of affordability to begin with (Hu, et. al, 2017). These
retirement village homes are economically accessible to only a fraction of the Australian
population. As a result, Liu, Ma and Liu (2016) argue that only a small percentage chooses to

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live here. Moreover, many companies have what is called an ‘Exit Fee’ i.e in event of death or
transfer to full-time medical care the house has to be sold and so, the owner(s) are obliged to pay
a percentage of the house’s original purchase price which is often not a small amount.
Secondly, according to a study conducted in 2017 it was found that senior individuals continued
to prioritize values of love, family, connection etc (Xia et.al, 2019). They would like to spend
their retirement in communities they grew up in or lived all their life and in such light, these
retirement villages serve little purpose. Instead they provide them with a false, rather
constructed sense of community (O’Shea, 2018). This inadequacy in the social setting can be
depressing to come to terms with.
Thirdly, retirement villages are essentially “service-rich” environments (Hu, et. al, 2017), such as
services of maintenance, safety, transport, etc. these services can be beneficial but may also
discourage people from pursuing an active social life. Forging close relationships at an old age is
difficult and, therefore, in these retirement villages the residents may suffer from loneliness and
depression due to less participation in organized social activities (Xia, et.al, 2019). They may
never leave their home because these villages take care of every need, except their desire to be
among one’s kin.
Furthermore, the retirement village sector faces the issue of weak policy support from the
government (Hu et.al, 2018). There requires a stronger financial safety net for the older
population which should also be more transparent. The high purchase price of these retirement
homes can be checked by introducing a public-private partnership (PPP) model in the sector. The
issues require local governments to look critically into addressing the needs and expectations of
the older populations, thereby providing them with services based on their individual needs and
competencies.
Lastly, the world’s current aging population comprises of the ‘Baby Boomers’ i.e. those born in
the 1940s-1960s who having shown to place greater emphasis on stability and a comfortable
lifestyle (Lim, et.al, 2019). This focus might shift, however, when the generation succeeding it
grows old and may develop a totally different perception of old age and retirement. In this
context it is, therefore, not wrong to argue that these retirement village communities might lose

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their popularity in the future. As a result, even though they may be sustainably constructed today
they will prove to be economic and ecological liabilities for the future generations (Xia et.al,
2019). Thus, I would like to conclude that while the concept of retirement village homes is a
commendable development in our efforts towards old age-care, the need of the hour is to
understand the underlying preferences of the older adults regarding those living environment and
plan a more sustainable and people-friendly path to development in the housing sector in general.

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Reference List
Hu, X., Xia, B., Buys, L. and Skitmore, M., 2017. Availability of services in registered
retirement villages in Queensland, Australia: A content analysis. Australasian journal on
ageing, 36(4), pp.308-312.
Hu, X., Xia, B., Skitmore, M. and Buys, L., 2018. Providing a sustainable living environment in
not-for-profit retirement villages: A case study in Australia, Emerald Insight. Facilities, 36(5/6),
pp. 272-290.
Lim, J. X., Ng I. S., Basha K. N.,2019. To Retire or Not to Retire: Intention Towards Concept of
Retirement Village in Malaysia. Asian Journal of Business Research, MAG Scholar 9(1), pp.60-
80.
Liu, S., Ma, L. and Liu, C., 2016, January. Understanding senior community residents for better
construction of retirement villages. In AUBEA 2016: Proceedings of the 40th Australasian
Universities Building Education Association Annual Conference: Radical Innovation in the Built
Environment (pp. 525-534). Central Queensland University.
O'Shea, L.,2018, Retirement villages the need to protect residents' rights [online]. Available at:
<https://search.informit.com.au/documentSummary;dn=950348823623034;res=IELAPA>
ISSN: 1449-7719. [Accessed 09 Apr 2020].
Stockland., 2020. Our Strategy. [online]. Available at: <https://www.stockland.com.au/about-
stockland/our-strategy > [Accessed on 09 Apr 2020]
Xia, B., Chen, Q., Ye, Y. and Buys, L., 2019. Sustainable Living Environment in Retirement
Villages: What Matters to Residents?. Available at SSRN 3403424.