Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Michelle Palmer: Retirement Villages Association Executive Director on the amendment of the Retirement Villages Act 2003

Transcript

Michelle Palmer: Retirement Villages Association Executive Director on the amendment of the Retirement Villages Act 2003 · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Good news this morning. For the sixty three thousand key
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: he's living in retirement villages, operators will have to repay
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: residents within a year of them moving out. Until now,
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: there's basically been no deadline. Michelle Palmer is Retirement Villages
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: Association executive director, with me this morning. Michelle, good morning,
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: Good morning, Ryan. Can you not on sell the units quickly?
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: What's the hold up?
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: The hold ups the property market? That's it in a nutshell.
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: You know, if we can fix the property market like
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: a few years ago when it was booming, we wouldn't
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: even been talking about the need for repayments at it
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: by a certain date.
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: Is there not a demand for retirement village homes? Is
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: the property market just the same for retirement villages?
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: Well no, there's a bit more of a bit more
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: to it, and we've got a waiting list across the
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: country for people who want to move into retirement villages.
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: The problem is that people just can't sell their homes
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: quick enough to get in. So, you know, in some
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: areas are like christ it's booming a little bit more.
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: You know, people are taking between three and six months
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: to sell their property and are able to move into
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: a retirement village. In other parts of the country, like
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: in Auckland, the property market is a lot slower, and
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: particularly in rural communities, and it can take a lot
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: longer for someone to sell their home to be able
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: to buy in and come into the retirement village.
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: But why should that be the problem of the resident
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: who's moving out.
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's a fair question, but that's how the model works.
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: So the outgoing resident or their estates, they don't get
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: paid neither does the operator until the new resident moves in.
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: Just as you would if you were selling your own home,
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: you know, you don't get paid that money until the
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: sale is complete, and it's exactly the same with the
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: incoming resident. The payment then is made to the parties
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: that you know, they're both to the operator and also
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: to the outgoing resident.
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: This is not going to be what's the longest that
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: you're aware of someone's had to wait?
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: A really isolated case, but an awful one was just
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: on the two year mark, and you know, a much
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: older village, rural location, and there just wasn't the ability
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: for people to sell. There was absolutely a number of
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: people wanting to move into that villa, but people just
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: couldn't sell their properties.
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: Is this going to bankrupt the time in villages? Is
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: it going to be the end of the world, Because
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: if you're waiting two years to sell out to get
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: your money back from a retirement village, that's your whole
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: life on hold.
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Absolutely, it is for the operators too. They don't
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: they are paying rates and insurance and maintenance. They're keeping
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: the power on and all those things in that in
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: that villa when it's empty, So everyone loses on that. Look,
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: it is an isolated case. Generally speaking, the majority are
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: around the six to seven months at the moment. A
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: year ago it was five and a half months on average,
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: But it does string out across and look, it's just
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: one of those things that is really we're struggling with
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: as a sector. You know, we would love to get
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: those resold as fast as possible. What the government has
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: proposed is really hitting us with a double whammy. We
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: put forward to the government that there's an opportunity for
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: operators to pay interest on the amount payable at the
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: six month mark, when you know, if the unit hadn't
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: been resold, and the government has said they'll take that,
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: and they've also put on that full repayment at twelve.
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: Months, so you're get in both. They've obviously gone and
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: sided with the elderly voters. It sounds like, Michelle, appreciate
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: your time. Michelle Palmer Retirement Villagers Association. For more from
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: Early Edition with Ryan Bridge, Listen live to news talks.
• 3:46
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• 3:50
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