Author: Antonia Norris

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Latest industry developments Things to watch What the research tells us

Building communities through leadership – learn from Peter Baines OAM

The role of Village Manager is unlike any other. You are responsible for building communities and also leading a team that delivers a business result.

Have you considered the building blocks required to be effective against these two objectives?

Peter Baines is regarded as the leading educator and speaker on building communities and you can learn from Peter at our VILLAGE SUMMIT.

He spent two decades as a forensic investigator in communities subjected to major crises in Indonesia, Japan and Thailand.

From these lessons he learned the benefit of the ‘power of presence’:

  1. building communities and families through shared experiences
  2. engagement strategies that stick
  3. increasing your retention rate
  4. removing self-imposed limitations
  5. celebrating your victories

Check out Peter Baines HERE. Check out the VILLAGE SUMMIT HERE.

Please join us in Sydney to expand your leadership skills, Thursday 11 on Friday 12 April.

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Latest industry developments Things to watch What the research tells us

Training and professional development for the Code of Conduct and Accreditation deadline: 1 January 2020

To comply with the retirement village Code of Conduct Village Managers will have to demonstrate training has been completed across a number of areas.

To comply with Retirement Village Accreditation Village Managers will require training on the accreditation program and demonstrate professional training across modules have been completed.

To fast track your training obligations join us at the VILLAGE SUMMIT. Experience 22 leading speakers as they address individual components of the village manager role.

Check the program HERE.

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Latest industry developments Things to watch What the research tells us

Retirement villages sales in a difficult market – learn at the village Summit

They say that ‘sales solve all problems’. For retirement villages speedy turnover of homes is desired by residents, families and owners.

But these are challenging times with declining household prices. Every village needs more sales enquiry and conversion.

We have assembled the most successful village marketers and salespeople to give you insights and skills that work.

The VILLAGE SUMMIT offers exceptional value – increasing your sales rates by just 10% for most will repay the SUMMIT investment and more.

The sooner you join us at the VILLAGE SUMMIT, the sooner you can implement your new learnt sales skills. Please join us 11 – 12 April in Sydney. Check the SUMMIT out HERE.

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Things to watch What the research tells us

‘Disruption’ and investing in your professional development as a Village Manager at the VILLAGE SUMMIT

This week we briefed Matt Church (pictured above) for his keynote speaking role at our village Summit in two weeks time here in Sydney.

He wanted to know what the job of a village manager will look like in five years’ time.

What are your thoughts? We said it will be very different; the business of retirement villages is being ‘disrupted’ like every other business.

New villages are going vertical in inner and middle suburbs of cities and regional towns, with international hotel like facilities. The building is very different as a ‘capital asset’ to the traditional village of villas. ‘Concierge services’ are being marketed.

Sales need to be fast.

Older villages require refurbishment – requiring different village manager skills, working with residents, complex building and outfitting, and budgeting.

Resident sales expectations need to managed.

Five years from now – a new world requiring new skills. Are you prepared?

We have invested in Matt Church to support you in preparing for this new retirement village sector. You can experience Matt at our VILLAGE SUMMIT 11-12 April in Sydney..

Matt is one of the nation’s best keynote speakers. He blends inspiration, education and entertainment to create world class conference presentations.

He is committed to helping people prepare for tomorrow by taking action today. His philosophy can be summed up in one word NEXT! What is the best next thing you can do to future proof your business or career?

In 2014 Matt was inducted into the professional speaker Hall of Fame. e-Speakers ranks him as one of the Top10 motivational speakers globally. The International Federation of Professional Speakers recognised him as one the top 21 most influential speakers on the planet.

Please join us, experience Matt and 21 other leading speakers on village management. Click HERE for the program.

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Key things to help you everyday Reporting Results

Home care: something to think about from the Aged Care Royal Commission

The Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety will roll on until at least December.

Over the next two weeks expect some ‘crisis’ news in the media given the witnesses being called.

But it is not all bad news. The people who know say that 25% of the Royal Commission is about the bad stuff, but after that is out of the way, 75% will be the good stuff – how do we make aged care better.

For retirement villages, one of the submissions is really interesting.

The big home care provider Enrich is pushing that Australia looks at Denmark. 20 years ago, Denmark had a system like ours where we accepted that people get old and simply get more frail and sicker until we die.

The Danes turned their system upside down, saying ‘let’s keep people well as long as possible’. They increased home care support from 25% of their aged care budget (same as ours) to 50%. They also said people had to take responsibility for their own health.

In 20 years, their number of hospitals has dropped from 92 to 35. They have half the people in aged care that we do (as a percentage).

People who take responsibility for their own wellness future and get supportive home care live longer and avoid hospital and aged care homes.

Does this sound like retirement villages? You would be aware that the Australian consulting firm Grant Thornton’s research shows retirement village residents live five years longer than the average Australian, and they are far less likely to go into residential aged care.

Commissioner Lynelle Briggs like these ideas. She says herself that the aged care system “needs to be turned upside down’.

‘Assisted living’ is the increasingly popular label for retirement villages supporting increasingly frail residents in their own home. It has a big future. But its success will depend on the quality of Village Managers.

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Key things to help you everyday Latest industry developments Reporting Results

Code of Conduct and training of Village Managers in your Village budgets

If your village operator is a member of LASA (Leading Age Services Australia), the Retirement Living Council or the Property Council, you will be looking to implement the new retirement village Code of Conduct between now and December.

The Code of Conduct is a 30-page document that outlines how each village intends to conduct itself with residents. If you would like a copy, click HERE.

The Code is voluntary but there is a big push coming for every operator to take it up. Ask your boss!

Village management has until December to implement the Code. From January the requirements must be operating and each village accountable.

‘Severe’ breaches of the Code will result in the village being ‘sanctioned’ – named and shamed on the industry website.

From the picture at the top, you can see that ‘training’ has to be seen to be provided to you, and for it to be real and relevant training.

Have you got training in your 2020 budget? Have you discussed with your operator who will pay for training? How much should you allocate?

A tip. A KPMG focus group of operators all said the operator should pay and nominated $2,500-$3,000 for two days training, as a start.

This is an investment in your village, the success of the Code of Conduct, and of course yourself.

Our VILLAGE SUMMIT has been built around the Code of Conduct and the new accreditation system. (More about accreditation next newsletter).

Learn more about the VILLAGE SUMMIT HERE.

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Latest industry developments Things to watch

Good news: experienced and new village operators committing to the future of retirement villages

As a Retirement Village Manager, you will be thinking about your career prospects going forward.

The good news, despite the media and reactive governments, is that experienced and new village operators are committing really big funds to acquire and build new villages.

A couple of examples to demonstrate this really positive trend:

  • Glen Brown, a 50-ish veteran village operator based in Brisbane who helped build RetireAustralia from scratch, has bet his future on his new village group called Reside. He has got the capital together to build 1,500 retirement village homes over the next six to eight years – that’s worth $600 million. (Glen and his team pictured).
  • Paul Browne, a 60-ish veteran village operator who built and sold Freedom to Aveo, has created LDK Healthcare and is building 400 village homes in Canberra and just bought The Landings in Sydney (around 230 homes) for about $60 million.
  • Phil Usher, a 55-ish veteran village operator who created Tall Trees Villages, is having another go, just announcing his Odyssey Village group. The first development will be $50 million.
  • Steller Developments in Melbourne, a big residential developer, has just committed $430 million to build four villages in one go on the Mornington Peninsula, their first ever.

And there are quite a few other private people putting real money up.

At the same time not-for-profit village operators are expanding aggressively.

The message: retirement villages are growing, which means the demand for experienced, professional retirement village managers is growing too. Good news.

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Latest industry developments Reporting Results

April/May/June peak tyre kicking months – get ready

The best time to go fishing is when the fish are jumping – and the retirement village buyers should be jumping for the next three months. But are they buyers?

Check out the graph above. This is the sales action for Aveo across about 80 villages for the last two years.

The tall mid blue column is the average weekly appointments potential customers make to visit a village for the three months of that quarter.

The light blue column is the average weekly seen appointments – the number of people who actually turn up.

The dark blue column is the average number of sales made.

We have circled in red the Fourth Quarter – April/May/June. You can see they get more potential customers ‘walking down the drive’.

However the actual sales rates don’t vary that much throughout the year.

For Aveo it averages 19 sales a month, every quarter.

This makes sense because things happen in people’s lives every month, causing them to consider downsizing from the family home to a safer, more supportive community.

The moral: treat every month as a peak selling month.

What should be the sales ratio to enquiry?

The Aveo figures are interesting. They currently get approximately 180 people each week making an appointment to visit a village. 120 people actually show up – that 66%. From those 120 people around 19 actually buy; that is 16% or just under one in every six that walks down the drive.

Compared to normal residential sales that is a really good ratio. Imagine a real estate agent who knew he only had to show six people a home to get a sale.

On the other hand, there are village marketers that average one in three inspections generates a sale. Maybe their villages present better.

In our opinion the key selling feature is you, the village manager. It makes sense that if you are positive and confident about the product you represent customers will be reassured they are making a good decision – especially as you will be staying with them in their journey, unlike most salespeople.

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Key things to help you everyday What the research tells us

The important role of the Village Manager in the Sales Process, especially with slow sales

Early indications reveal Retirement Living sales will be slow in 2019.

Negative media, the impacts of a softening residential housing market, tightening of consumer lending, and let’s not forget the influence of the Aged Care Royal Commission.

We know your role as the Village Manager in the Sales Process is an important one, whether you are totally responsible for the sales function or whether you work alongside the marketing and sales teams.

The Village Managers is the face of the village – and first impressions count!

Here are some things to think about.

  1. You can prepare the village for potential customer visits:
  • Lead the Village team to focus on customer service so that first impressions count
  • Meet with prospective residents early in the process, to ensure a strong relationship can be built
  1. Residents and word-of-mouth in the local community is gold:
  • Maintain resident satisfaction and engagement, to encourage residents to also be a sound referral source for the village
  • Maintain a planned welcome process that encourages a smooth transition for new residents; home readiness, neighbour buddies, induction, meals, etc..
  • Build community relationships to influence local community members to become referral sources for the village
  1. You are on the spot and a local yourself. You understand what the market wants:
  • Assist with development planning with real, local information
  • Influence the marketing strategies by providing intelligence around the current resident socio-demographic

This is what you do every day -the marketers need to understand this and engage with you more this year than ever before.

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Key things to help you everyday Latest industry developments Reporting Results

NSW government to limit weekly fees for departing residents – max.42 days

Do your village contracts require you to charge a departing resident or their family or their estate ongoing weekly fees until their village home has been reoccupied? Most do.

But if you are in New South Wales the limit is about to be fixed at six weeks (42 days).

This means that after six weeks the operator is likely to have to pay the fees for the vacancy unit into the village budget.

This is really going to hurt a lot of operators, especially with slow sales and building vacant stock.

The average village home now takes over 300 days from when it becomes vacant to being reoccupied. That is 43 weeks, meaning in NSW the operator will be paying 36 weeks worth of village fees. At $100 a week that is $3600, or $36,000 for a 100 unit village that has a 10% turnover a year.

Is this new government ruling fair? On paper, no. If a normal lease tenant departs before the lease is complete they are responsible for the fees until the property is relet. However there is an argument that operators both take their time to relet and because they control the sale process the departing resident has no chance to intervene.

Irrespective, it is likely other states will follow the New South Wales government.