Legislate or Educate

Legislate or Educate - Will Retirement Village legislators stop the industry problems with tighter legislative controls and greater consumer protections or will they simply continue on the current path of so called educate retirees in the hope retirees can identify the problem for themselves.

This policy given the current public outcry seems to have failed many Australian retirees.

In the past the retirement industry has managed to persuade governments that greater consumer protections would come at the cost of industry growth and innovation. Governments have held the view that it was better to educate than to legislate.

Report after report identified the issues, the issues in 2007 were the very same issues today. Some argue that it is the very basis of retirement villages, the Deferred Management Fee model which has sent the industry on this path, a system designed for charity organisation decades ago, and that to just buy or rent is the best simplest reform to make.

The property purchase market and the property rental market are mature markets, well legislated, and very well understood by retirees. It is now 2017, let us hope we will not be back here in 2027 discussing these same issues.



 




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