Unity Jackson-Muir, Real estate reporter
First published 26 Oct 2026, 5:00am
Industry experts call for investment incentives for retirement villages as a solution to tackle the housing crisis. Picture: Keryn Stevens
Aussies are finding it increasingly hard to buy homes but senior citizens could be sitting on a solution and industry experts are calling for better incentives to build more seniors living options.
The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare projects that the over 85 population will triple in size by 2066 and jump from around 603,000 today to almost 1.9 million.
Waitlists for retirement villages have ballooned to around 27,000 and the industry says restrictive regulations as well as high building costs are limiting investment in new projects.
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Latest figures indicate the waitlist for retirement villages is around 27,000 people.
The NSW arm of the Urban Development Institute of Australia released their 2026 Seniors Housing Paper, calling for reforms to remove barriers and incentivise building seniors housing.
UDIA NSW chief executive officer Stuart Ayres said that seniors housing represents one of the most effective ways to boost housing supply without expanding the urban footprint.
“As our population ages NSW will need to deliver more seniors living opportunities across our mix of housing typologies,” Mr Ayres said.
“Increasing supply of seniors housing facilitates more ‘right-sizing’ across the housing market.
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UDIA NSW chief executive officer Stuart Ayres called for six key reforms in the policy paper, ‘A Better Future for Seniors Housing in NSW’. Picture: NewsWire / Nikki Short
“Allowing more people to choose the home that best suits their needs.
“Incentivising investment in seniors living is a win-win situation.
“It will create new housing for older Australians and free up existing stock to be better allocated for growing families,” he said.
Data from the Retirement Living Council (RLC) shows that retirement village residents are 15 per cent more physically active and 41 per cent happier.
They’re also 20 per cent less likely to require hospitalization after nine months, which reduces government spending for aged care by $945m each year.
RLC executive director Daniel Gannon said that when older Australians move into retirement homes, it creates a chain reaction that eases pressure across the housing market and healthcare.
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Retirement Living Council executive director Daniel Gannon said stagnant approval processes are slowing down new builds. Picture: AAP Image / Sam Wundke
“When retirement villages get stuck in the approvals process, that chain reaction stalls,” Mr Gannon said.
“Fewer homes are built, fewer family homes come back onto the market and more pressure spills into hospitals and aged care.
“We can’t keep talking about fixing housing supply while putting the brakes on one of the most effective ways to increase it.
“If we do, the waiting lists will keep growing, and older Australians will be the ones left standing in the queue,” he said.
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Jenny and Wendy moved into Uniting Park Meadows Westmead after living in adjoining homes for 30 years. Pictures: Supplied
Retirees Jenny and Wendy recently moved into Uniting Park Meadows retirement village in Westmead after living as neighbours for the last 30 years in Toongabbie.
The best friends met at their local church when they were in their 20s but didn’t initially hit it off.
“To be honest, Wendy and I are very different people, and I never imagined us forming a friendship,” Jenny said.
They were both wanting to move and decided to look for a small complex of villas. They soon moved into a duplex in Toongabbie where they “had the joy of building our homes together.”
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Wendy said one of the hardest parts of moving was leaving behind her garden in Toongabbie. Pictures: Supplied
As Jenny and Wendy started to age, their duplex began presenting challenges. The stairs were tough on their deteriorating knees and the garden was too much work to maintain.
“I just love the garden but it became too much as we both got older and retired,” Wendy said.
“Keeping up with the watering and the pruning and all the stuff that you need to do in the garden to make it look really lovely, it was harder and harder,” she said.
They decided to look into retirement village options and were told finding somewhere that could take them both at the same time could be tough.
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Jenny said they wouldn’t have moved if they couldn’t find somewhere together. Pictures: Supplied
“When we rang around to a few villages and said, we want two apartments in the village at the same time, most villages said that could take years,” Jenny said.
“It was just that Westmead was newly built so they had about half a dozen or more apartments still vacant in stage one,” she said.
They swiftly sold their duplex to a pair of young sisters and moved into the same retirement village.
Jenny and Wendy both talk fondly of the new community they’ve built and encourage other retiree’s to make the jump.
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