Australia’s land lease sector is booming on the back of our aging population. 

About one in six Australians is now aged over 65 years, and more are downsizing into land lease retirement communities. 

The land lease model has quickly grown into a $12 billion industry, and smart builders are taking advantage. 

Just ask the General Manager of Brighton Projects Ricky Morgan who is delivering retirement villages around the country to cater for the surge in older Australians.

Ricky said after strong growth in recent years retirement villages account for half the builds of Brighton Homes, 317 out of 632 builds in the 23/24 financial year.

It gives us a very consistent (cash) stream across our business, and because it is a cookie cutter model where you just rinse and repeat and you keep doing it again and again.

“So that part of it’s nice, that’s probably the good part, probably doesn’t explain how much hard work there is behind that good part,” Mr Morgan said.

That good part is the result of Brighton’s nearly two decades of delivering retirement villages for some of Australia’s biggest developers.

“I have two sayings – ‘Our hardest contract is our very first contract’ because it’s so hard getting over the line and getting that trust within with a new developer, and my other one is ‘Every contract I’ve ever won, I’ve got a second contract’ because it means that we can then deliver and just do it again and again and again, I don’t believe we’ve ever been taken off a job.”

I have two sayings – ‘Our hardest contract is our very first contract’ and my other one is ‘Every contract I’ve ever won, I’ve got a second contract.’

To deliver on those mottos Ricky and team had to change their mindset from residential to commercial.

He identified five key areas you need to get right to succeed in the retirement community market – contracts, trades, training, communication, and getting the program right.

Contracts

“Our clients, these developments are big, so they can be from 200 to five hundred is pretty common,” he said.

“Our contracts are not homes’ contracts. They’re thick. Then the people that run them are all uni trained and commercial.

Our team has to have a commercial understanding for what we do because if you can’t compete, be on top of, and understand that commercial side of the business, the clients will walk all over you.

“That’s how we are, and that’s what our team does well, we manage the contract really well.”

Trades and training

“With the trade base,  every detail is important. You have to spend time with trades making sure they’re the right fit. They’ve got to be on top of the program.

“At a (commercial) site level, there’s not many supervisors that have ever been trained properly in a residential space to run a site like that,” he said.

“All of our best people are people who we’ve trained. If I had someone with 20 years’ experience being a residential supervisor and asked them to step in, they’d struggle because there’s a massive amount of accountability on the trades and on us to make sure we all agree on how we’re proceeding.

Communication

“It’s really making sure that our team, just have the right approach. Approach is everything.”

“I usually have 450 contractors come through a site. I can’t manage 450 people, but I can manage 20 people. So, the supervisors are critical. And so are our interactions with our supervisors, our meetings, the way we’ve put a lot of time and effort into making everyone talk to each other.”

“If someone’s in a bad mood Monday and goes, ‘I’m sick of that tiler’ or ‘I’m sick of that plasterer,’ the first thing I do is go and grab that tiler and plasterer and bring them over and say ‘he’s not happy with you’ and ‘tell him why.’ It’s not meant to be confronting. It’s about getting them talk to each other. It changes everyone’s headspace.”

Getting the program right

“Program, program, program.

“So even when we get a contract and we enter a stage and they drop them in 20s and they, depending on sales rates, try to have the slabs all flowing.

“So, the client works with us to make sure it flows.

On day one, we’ll put the whole program out and the whole delivery schedule out.

“There it is. Let’s build and it’s all routine.”

“It’s all about getting the flow, and we get rain and all that kind of stuff, which we manage. But the goal is to get that flow happening.”

Why do it?

“People ask why I do what I do?”

“I enjoy it. I can drive past and I can go in and go, oh my God, we’ve built a community. It’s pretty impressive when you can actually have a bit of pride and sit back and go, that’s pretty good. I’m happy with that.”

Learn more about what Brighton Projects is up to.

Fast Facts

• Growing Popularity – The over 55 population is set to increase by 1.3M by 2032. 
• Village Count – Australia has around 2,300 retirement villages, offering a mix of independent living units, serviced apartments, and aged care options, and a significant pipeline of future villages. 
• According to the Colliers Land Lease Market Overview The main land lease operators in Queensland are Hometown Australia (18 Villages), Palm Lake Resort (15 Villages), Stockland Halcyon (12 villages), Gem-Live / Living Gems ( 7 villages), Avid / Vantage (8 Villages), Serentias (9 Villages). 
• The biggest pipeline for land lease community development sites is shared by: Gem Life (12 sites), Stockland Halcyon (6+ sites), Ingenia (6+ Sites), Avid / Vantage (4+ sites). Palm Lake and Serenitas both have 2 sites to be developed. 

Author: Richard O'Leary

Experienced writer, commentator and political advisor, Richard held a raft of journalism and editorial roles before taking executive communication roles for multiple Premiers, Chief Ministers and even NBN Co. He grew up in his father’s construction business and joins The Good Builder as its founding Editor.