Retirement village living: the good, the bad and the (downright) ugly

Going forward

The report from the Public Inquiry makes a total of 15 recommendations, one of which is to review the current Act and the other is to introduce a Retirement Housing Ombudsman (page 89):

The Committee believes that a Retirement Housing Ombudsman should be introduced… This model could be in the form of a newly created position or, ideally, created by extending the powers of an existing body, such as the Consumer and Business Ombudsman.

A review of the Act and the introduction of a Retirement Housing Ombudsman, as well as the introduction of other recommendations such as mandatory accreditation for retirement village providers and certification of village managers would go a long way to re-establish trust in the retirement village housing model. With the current media airing of what Alan Kohler has previously termed the 'retirement village rorts', a vast amount of bridge-mending is required by the industry – and fast.