On 20 August 2021, the Retirement Villages Amendment (Miscellaneous) Regulation 2021 (NSW) (Amendment) was published on the NSW legislation website. It commenced immediately. Specific retirement villages operators in NSW will need to ensure compliance with the new obligations outlined in the Amendment from 1 January 2021 and on an ongoing quarterly basis.

The Amendment imposes certain data reporting obligations on operators of retirement villages located in the Central Coast or Lake Macquarie local government areas (LGAs). The new obligations require operators in these LGAs to provide the Secretary of the Department of Customer Service (Secretary) with the following information:

1. the number of premises advertised for sale during the relevant reporting period (Period) and how long it was advertised for sale; and

2. the number of premises sold during the Period and the time it was advertised for sale before being sold.

The Period relates to the following time frames:

1. the initial reporting period, being 1 January 2021 – 30 September 2021; and

2. quarterly reporting periods after 30 September 2021, being:

  • 1 January – 31 March;
  • 1 April – 30 June;
  • 1 July – 30 September; and
  • 1 October – 31 December.

Within 1 month of the end of each Period, an affected operator must provide the required information to the Secretary in a de-identified format in an approved form. At this stage, an approved form has not yet been issued by the Secretary.

The data provided will influence the NSW Government’s future consideration of the classification of the Central Coast and Macquarie Lake LGAs with respect to the exit entitlement order provisions set out in Part 10AA of the Retirement Villages Act 1999 (NSW). Data collection for a 12 month period will be used to inform the decision.

The Amendment also extends the COVID emergency powers period until 30 March 2022.

If you would like assistance to understand your reporting obligations or have any queries about this update, please contact our national Health, Aged Care and Retirement Village team.