When you need to move from retirement villages
Historical article – pre-1 November 2025 aged care changes
For many people, a retirement village may offer a great retirement living solution, especially when you start to find maintenance on a home more difficult or you want convenient social interactions. You might also be able to access some personal care and home help support.
But as your care needs increase, you might be faced with the decision to move out of the retirement village and into residential aged care. This move will have financial implications and you may need to make decisions around how to structure your finances.
Exiting the retirement village
Retirement village (and land lease community) contracts are commercial arrangements and financial details vary greatly. When you leave (including for a move into residential care) the contract usually terminates and the home is sold to a new resident.
Some of the key factors to consider are:
Amount repaid to you – do you get a refund of the amount you paid or do you need to sell the home?
Departure fees – Are Deferred management fees, refurbishment costs, or selling fees payable?
Access to capital gains – this can range from having no share of the gains, a partial share of gains through to you keeping all of the capital gains (if applicable).
Ongoing fees – will you need to continue paying ongoing fees after you move out until the home is sold?
Paying to move into residential care
Like any property sale, the refund from the retirement village may not be paid until the unit is sold. The sale process is often out of your control and timing may be protracted. You may have more control in a land lease community, but you still need to find a buyer.
The aged care fees start when you move into care. Financial advice can help you to plan how to use your other savings to fund the costs in the interim.
Depending on the state where you live, legislation may impose rules that help with this transition by requiring village operators (not land lease) to advance some of the sale proceeds as a lump sum or daily fee to help with aged care accommodation cost.
Ask for help
As an FPA Aged Care Specialist, I have helped many clients to make this choice. I help to find a choice that is affordable, as well as works best for the family and protects the value of the estate.
Call me today on 0431 414 799 to see how I can help with making the right decisions and understanding the impacts of a move into residential care.
This advice is general in nature and everyone’s circumstances are different. So it’s important to speak to someone like myself who is a licenced financial adviser (I am an Authorised Representative of Count Financial Limited AFSL 227232).
