General Information

The general information results have not changed much in 4 years. This year respondents reported they have lived in their village for an average of 9.6 years,

• the majority of respondents (83.4%) are on leasehold contracts and
• 95.9% of the villages where residents responded have a Residents Committee, which is an increase over last year’s 92.7%.

Budgets

Most budgets have been passed with 66.4% approved and 13.4% requiring no vote due to being under or at the CPI increase. These results are very similar to 2024. However, 5.9% of the budgets had not been finalised at the time the survey was closed.

The vast majority of residents pay recurrent charges monthly (86.3%) and a high number reported a recurrent charges increase in line with the CPI. The lowest recurrent charge rise reported was 0% and the highest was 17%.

Only 28.2% stated that a 3-year report for capital maintenance was attached to the proposed annual budget, whereas 52.5% said it was not (2024 = 36.8%) and 19.3% said they did not know.

Asset Management Plans

• 57.3% reported the Asset Management Plan (AMP) was available for residents to review and discuss with management but 27.5% stated it was not available (last year = 16.1%). A further 16.3% were not sure if the AMP was available.
• 20.3% of respondents reported the AMP included an Independent Assessment by a professional, whereas 33.3% stated it did not. 46.4% were not sure if there was one included.

In answer to the question “for your most recent budget was there a line item for the Asset Management Plan (AMP)” 27.8% reported there was a line item for AMP maintenance. Of those, 47.5% were paying between $31,000 and $40,000 for AMP maintenance and 12.4% were paying over $50,000.

Capital Works Plan (CWF)

This year we introduced questions relating to the CWF.

• 85.6% of the villages represented have a CWF which is mainly funded by setting aside part of the current recurrent charges (73.8%).

Comments

Despite the lower CPI rises in the past two years there has been a significant increase in the strain the cost of living is placing on people living in retirement villages. In comparison with 2024, more budgets were rejected this year

• 2024= 8.8%
• 2025 = 12.4% and a few have been referred to NCAT.

Once again over 50% of the comments in each section were negative. And, similar to the last surveys, many respondents were “not sure” indicating a lack of communication on Finance matters within villages.

What next?

The responses will be analysed over the next few weeks and a full report developed and made available through the RVRA’s website and Bulletin. A comparison with the past three year’s result will be conducted to see if the emerging trends previously identified persist, and to consider any future action to be taken by the RVRA.

Once again, we express our thanks all those who participated in the Survey.

Diane Hart: RVRA Chair Education Centre
Roger Pallant: RVRA President