Summerset opens new chapter starting soon to build its first Australian retirement village

Wednesday, 28 April 2021

Retirement village Summerset chief executive Scott Scoullar says the core drivers of why people come to live in Summerset’s villages, the safety, support and companionship they offer, will stay the same and are unaffected by Covid19.

Big retirement village operator Summerset Group expects to start building its first Australian retirement village soon and have first residents next year.

At the company’s virtual annual meeting, chairman Rob Campbell told shareholders the company expected consent for its first Australian village, in Cranbourne North, in north-east in Melbourne, soon.

“We will immediately start earthworks on the site and will start pre-sales in the second half of this year. We expect to have our first residents move in at the start of 2022.”

The biggest operator Ryman Healthcare has five villages open and operating in Victoria and another five sites. It opened its first Australian village in Victoria, Weary Dunlop, in 2014.

Summerset’s long-serving board chairman Rob Campbell is handing over to new chairman Mark Verbiest in coming months.

* Summerset boss Julian Cook stepping down, to be replaced by deputy Scott Scoullar

* Covid-19 cuts the value of Summerset's retirement village units sending profit plummeting to $1m.

Australia was a growth market where Summerset would be expanding its land bank in the next two to three years, Campbell said

Summerset’s Pohutukawa Place retirement village at Bell Block, New Plymouth, will have a capacity for 500 residents when completed in 2023.

Summerset also had the largest land bank in the retirement sector here, enough land to double its current retirement unit portfolio.

It has 33 villages completed or under development and a further 10 earmarked for development. That includes three sites in Australia. It has more than 6200 residents and 1800 staff.

The new chief executive Scott Scoullar said it was too early to understand any impacts associated with last month’s Government housing policy changes.

“That being said, we still firmly believe that the core drivers of why people come to live in our villages, the safety, support and companionship they offer, will stay the same.”

The company was heading into a new phase, taking its first steps into the Australian retirement sector and continuing to grow in New Zealand.

“We are optimistic about growth this year and beyond. The core drivers behind why people enter our villages remain unaffected by Covid-19 and in a lot of respects have continued to strengthen.”

The company had reduced emissions intensity by 31 percent since 2107 using the Toitu carbonzero programme by reviewing its energy, waste, paper and travel. It had also committed to reducing carbon emissions by 62 percent in its design and building processes during the next decade.

This year Summerset would be building 500 to 550 homes across 14 construction sites.

New Zealand had about 35,000 retirement units and a looming supply shortage as the number of people over 75 was forecast to more than double in the next 40 years from 350,000 to more than one million, Scoullar said.

It would offer the same continuum of care model in Australia, allowing people to live independently in retirement villages and then move into either an apartment with services or the village’s care centre.

That was a key point of difference for Australia, where there was a very limited number of operators who offered a full continuum of care, Scoullar said.