Allan Labor Government Hates Retirees

 Why does the Jacinta Allan Victorian Government hate retirement village residents?

Why does the Victorian government love retirement village operators by contracts requiring residents to pay an ingoing contribution, or entry fee, or buying price, to get into a residential tenancy independent living  unit, ILU, in a retirement village where they can be charged deferred and multiple split priced rentals.

The Victorian Jacinta Allan Labor Government 2025 version of the “ingoing contribution” Retirement Village loan/lease business model denies property ownership to a retiree for merely conditional occupancy, a 'residential tenancy' by any other name. This action hidden within a convoluted and misleading occupancy contract. 

Despite the payment by the retiree of an 'ingoing contribution' often commensurate with an ownership cost, actual property ownership is held by the operator. In a further burden on the retiree the financial benefits of this 'property ownership' are retained by the village operator whilst all the financial costs of this 'property ownership' are transferred on to the retiree. 

To rub further salt into the wound there is a Deferred Management Fee for the retiree to pay which can be as high as 40% on the 'ingoing contribution' paid. This fee is essentially a 'rental' payment by any other name hence the claim by retirees of paying double the odds, property ownership costs without the ownership plus a substantial 'rental' fee which by government statute is not allowed to be called 'rent'.

With receipt of the ingoing contribution and the retention of property ownership, retirement village operators can by statute transfer ownership costs and add a deceptively termed deferred fee, essentially a rental component, into complex contracts to double the effective rental over the retiree's occupancy period.

Legislators and Consumer Affairs Victoria have consistently failed to identify the spectacular profit increase by the operators using this Loan/Lease business model. A model which uses ambiguous and misleading mechanisms to hide the true cost of the occupancy in relation to the comparative market rate for residential tenancy. Only property ownership for the retiree can negate the blatant deception of Victoria's retirees, retirees who make the financially devastating decision to spend most if not all of their lifetime accumulated asset base to enter a retirement village.

On having entered the loan/lease retirement village the asset base is diminished over time through the cost of property ownership but without the ownership, the cost of the 'rental' deceptively named the deferred management fee, the further destruction of their asset base by the devaluation impact of inflation over the length of the occupancy period.

The Victorian loan/lease model for retirement village is best summed up -                                                          "What we are talking about here is the transfer of intergenerational wealth, not to families, but into the pockets of corporations. Shame about the elderly not having enough money for aged care."