Retirement housing sector, a fascinating inquiry

Ms PATTEN (Northern Metropolitan) — I too would like to say a few brief words about the inquiry into the retirement housing sector. It was a fascinating inquiry. It is probably just the beginning of many in addressing this fast growing sector of housing requirements. Seeing the variety of retirement housing as part of the inquiry also highlighted the complexity of finding regulation and legislation that meet the needs of that very diverse and growing sector.

We heard during the inquiry that there is a huge housing shortage, and that is only going to grow. This inquiry started out by looking at the dispute resolution processes for retirement housing due to the complexity of contracts and the complexity of management fees and deferred payments. This committee has made some positive recommendations on how we can simplify this complexity. Certainly the recommendation for the establishment of a retirement housing ombudsman is very good and sound.

Looking at the Consumer Action Law Centre’s press release today, it noted that to take a dispute about retirement housing through VCAT, which is the only option for people in retirement housing now, costs upward of $250 000. This is entirely unacceptable for people who do not have the time to be going through a two-year process with VCAT, and also the need for that sort of money makes them unable to successfully state and argue their case. I hope that we have found a balance.

I would like to thank the secretariat and my fellow members, and I commend the report to the house.