Knowledge Centre

Day: February 24, 2022

Categories
Key things to help you everyday

New DCMI topic provides guide to increase digital literacy in your community and establishing a Digital Coach

Last month our DCMI PD program partnered with Your Link to introduce a new topic around Digital Literacy in Retirement Communities.

Many of you will have witnessed first hand digital exclusion.

Day to day seniors around the country are needing to become digitally savvy as they cope to use QR codes, online shopping, online ordering of services and even access many government services including MyAgedCare.

As VMs, we need an ABILITY to have a digital solution strategy for communication and service delivery.

In our PD topic presented by Your Link, we cover:

  • The essentials of digital literacy
  • Why digital skills are important for residents and village teams
  • The fundamentals of how to coach others to learn
  • and, The role of a digital coach

The aim of the topic is to encourage village professionals to create digital coaches within their villages that can assist other residents that may be at risk of digital exclusion.

Not a DCMI Member – learn more HERE or call Sally on 0417 482 312.

Categories
Village Operator

What the new Village Manager is looking for from an employment arrangement?

At the helm of every good village is a good village manager – but as operators are being forced to compete on salaries and benefits with other industries, good village managers are getting harder and harder to attract and retain.

A good village manager is vital for a village’s success, as they look after not only the physical assets of the village but the all-important DMF income.

The deferred management fee business is reliant on resident satisfaction – so there’s the assets of in some cases $20-70 million or more that they maintain, but VMs also have to maintain resident satisfaction to be able to grow and improve the DMF side.

Together, that’s a pretty important reason for having a very good village manager.

The role has changed. Today, a competent village manager is responsible for compliance, financial management, property management, mental health management, population wellness, sales, marketing and general resident well-being.

Looking forward, VMs might also be responsible for areas such as care services, food services, and retail leases, so their skill set is actually extremely broad.

It’s not something you can go to university to learn.

What managers want

Village managers are becoming more and more savvy in terms of what they want from an employer. Prospective hires nowadays would like to see:

  • A solid induction program – not just a week of on-the-job training
  • A commitment to ongoing professional development
  • Sound support program structures
  • Technological systems that support the village operations
  • Project support, such around COVID planning, Accreditation or asset upgrades

And more pay to go with the increased responsibility and skills.

We will look at this in the next issue.

Categories
Latest industry developments

Mirvac the latest residential developer to jump on the land lease bandwagon, could they be your next employer?

Mirvac CEO Susan Lloyd-Hurwitz said the country’s largest diversified developer is looking to “press the button” and follow Stockland, Ingenia Communities, Lifestyle Communities, Aspen Group, Palm Lake Resort, Serenitas and Hometown Australia into land lease developments.

“It’s a very compelling investment proposition and a very good customer proposition,” Susan told The Australian Financial Review after Mirvac announced a net profit of $565 million for the six months ended 31 December.

“We clearly have all the skills in-house to be able to design the right product at the right price point, experience in building community, and we have the land.”

https://www.theweeklysource.com.au/mirvac-the-latest-residential-developer-to-jump-on-land-lease-bandwagon/

One of the pilots will probably be at Smiths Lane, a 240-hectare master planned community at Clyde North in Melbourne’s outer south-eastern suburbs.

“Over the last year, we’ve gone ‘No, why would we do that… to let’s do that ourselves’,” Susan said.

Susan said Mirvac had no intention of buying established operators, but would look to build up its portfolio of assets, as it has done in office, industrial and build-to-rent.

“We have all the ingredients that we need – there are things we have to learn, probably, but I think we have most of the ingredients.”

Perhaps one of the key ingredients Mirvac may need will be skilled professionals that have the experience and aptitude to be able to hit the ground running when it comes to community management.

Mirvac was recognised as a HRD Employer of Choice for 2020. This accolade was received due to their ongoing commitment to gender equality, a mentoring program that focuses on career development and their purpose and values which are deeply embedded in the way their teams function.

At Mirvac their values include: 

  • Putting people first
  • Being passionate about quality and legacy
  • Collaboration
  • Being curious and bold
  • How we work is as important as what we do
  • Being genuine and doing the right thing
Categories
Village Operator

Stockland leaves retirement villages to build more land lease communities

33 minutes after announcing it was leaving retirement villages Stockland announced it was creating a new partnership with the huge Japanese real estate investment fund Mitsubishi Estate, to build a lot more land lease communities.

Together they intend to have $4 billion in development and sales over the next five years.

Stockland already had 10 land lease communities being built, plus last year they bought Halcyon’s land lease communities for $620 million.

Land lease communities are charging ahead. Home builder Mirvac also decided this month to move into the sector in a big way. See our story below.

Land lease homes sell to 55 to 70-year-old’s, while retirement village operators sell to 75+. They are a different market. LLCs also do not have any care in their offer – for now.

As long-time LLC operator Palm Lake Resort has had to do in its older locations, it has opened Aged Care homes next door.

Categories
Latest industry developments

After 20 years of trying, the third biggest retirement village operator, Stockland, sells out of the sector

Tarun Gupta, Stockland CEO (pictured), announced that its entire Retirement Living business, that’s 58 villages and 10 development projects underway, has been sold to Swedish investment firm EQT Infrastructure (EQT) for $987 million.

All 300 Stockland staff will transfer to EQT.

Not enough profit; want care

Stockland has had its village business for sale for seven years.

Mr Gupta has given two reasons for the sale – the village business was only making 3% cash profit, and the continued growth of village customers wanting care to be delivered.

He is quoted in the Financial Review newspaper: “They’re living longer, and average age in our retirement villages today is around 82 years,” he says.

“So, they need much more care. The sector’s moving into more what you would call healthcare with co-location of aged care capabilities.”

Year upon year Stockland has stated it was building the profit rate (Return on Investment) with a goal of 8%. They reached 6% in 2017 but then the famous Four Corners program went to air titled “Bleed Them Dry Until They Die”, referring to the DMF, and sales crashed – for three years – and Stockland sunk back to 3%.

The same occurred at Lendlease where Tarun Gupta was then a senior executive. He led the sale of 50% of Lendlease Retirement to investment funds there as well.

Good news for VMs

The Stockland sale is likely good news for village management and residents because the new owner understands the lower return and is seriously wealthy, with funds available to reinvest in villages to make them attractive to tomorrow’s customers.

And they understand that increased health support needs to be made available in villages, and has the time and patience to invest in providing it.

For village staff this means more upskilling and respect by management. The managers on the ground are the new owners’ biggest asset, protecting their $987 million investment.

A good place to be.