If you want to learn about retirement living or find retirement villages, manufactured home villages or rental villages for seniors in Australia and New Zealand, you've come to the right place.
This website is a resource for prospective residents and their families, with information about independent living (self care) and serviced apartment (assisted living) alternatives in retirement villages (which are generally marketed to people who are over 55) and manufactured home villages and rental villages (which are generally marketed to people who are over 50).
villages and communities that offer homes to rent (ie where a standard weekly, fortnightly or monthly rental payment is required and there is no initial purchase price or other ingoing capital contribution).
You will see that the villages listed in our directory describe themselves many different ways. Some describe themselves as a retirement village or even just a village, but descriptions like retirement community, retirement home, retirement estate, retirement resort, lifestyle village, lifestyle community and lifestyle resort are also often used.
If a village offers manufactured homes or only offers rental accommodation, then its listing will generally include a coloured "Manufactured Homes" tile or a coloured "Rental Only" tile. If a village generally offers homes to buy, but has some homes available for rent, then its listing will generally include a coloured "Some Rental" tile. The listings for villages that are part of a larger complex that includes a colocated aged care home will generally include a coloured "Onsite Aged Care" tile. The listings for villages that allow pets will generally include a "Pet Friendly" tile, although you will still need to check the village pet policy as prior approval may be required before you can be sure your pet will be welcome.
If you want to learn more about retirement villages, then please see our Retirement Villages Guide, which includes more detailed information about what retirement villages are, how they work and how they are regulated. It goes through the main benefits of retirement village living, as well as the negatives that you need to consider and understand. It also explains the fees and charges, including departure fees, which are also known as exit fees, deferred management fees and DMFs and are payable in many retirement villages when a resident permanently vacates the premises. There is no standard formula to calculate or estimate the departure fee and the amount payable usually depends on the duration of the period of occupancy, so we have built a Departure Fee Calculator that you can use to estimate how much a particular departure fee could be in different situations.
You should be aware that finding rental accommodation in retirement villages can be difficult, particularly in the main metropolitan centres like Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth, Hobart, Canberra and Darwin.
If you need a higher level or care than a retirement village can provide, then please see our Aged Care Guide, which includes information about what aged care is, how the system works and how it is regulated. It will take you through the assessment procedure, fees and charges, accreditation standards and resident rights and responsibilities.
If you prefer to stay at home, then please see our Home Care Guide, which includes information about what is availabe and explains the two main government programs: Home and Community Care (HACC) and Home Care Packages (HCP). It will take you through the assessment procedure and explains the fees and charges.
Please note that our main It's Your Life website has searchable directories of aged care homes, home care service providers and related products and services for seniors, as well as retirement villages.