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Ryman Healthcare has opened a $277-million retirement living and aged-care village in Melbourne’s outer eastern suburbs—the New Zealand provider’s eighth facility in Victoria in just a decade.
Named after the Royal Flying Doctor Service founder John Flynn, the facility includes 174 independent apartments, 89 serviced apartments for residents who need additional support, and a 114-bed aged care centre.
The village is on 2.5ha chunk of land Ryman acquired from Frasers Property early in 2016 as part of the Singaporean multinational’s $500-million masterplanned redevelopment of the old Burwood East brickworks site, about 20km east of Melbourne.
Ryman won development approval from Whitehorse City Council in 2018 but faced big challenges with construction undertaken during the Covid pandemic and Melbourne’s strict lockdown.
However, Ryman Australia chief executive Cameron Holland told about 200 people at the official opening this week the John Flynn Retirement Village was the fastest selling of the company’s eight operating facilities.
And the facility is a finalist for Best Retirement Living Development at the National Retirement Living Awards on the Gold Coast in June.
The aged care provider is publicly traded on the New Zealand Stock Exchange, and with total assets of about $11.6 billion it’s that country’s biggest aged-care operator.
It bought its retirement and aged care model to Australia in 2014.
“Ryman is no longer a New Zealand business operating in Australia, but a truly Trans-Tasman organisation that embodies the very best of the Anzac spirit,” Ryman Healthcare Group chief executive Richard Umbers said.
“We have transitioned from being a new entrant and a disrupter to an established, respected player in the Australian sector, with eight operational villages and six more in the development pipeline.”
Of those six, work has already begun on Ryman’s $200-million retirement village at 62-94 Jacksons Road in Mulgrave, 25km south-west of Melbourne. Once completed, the village will have 105 independent apartments, 70 independent villas, 54 serviced apartments, and a 60-bed care centre.
Two more have development approval and a third—on 1.47ha at 1-3 Moreland Road, in Essendon—was approved by Moonee Valley City Council—but rests with the Victorian Civil and Administration Tribunal (VCAT) after Ryman challenged some of the development conditions.
Development approval for a 230-resident facility on the Mornington Peninsula came late in 2022 but only after a drawn-out legal battle, again ending in VCAT, with the tribunal agreeing to revisions involving building sizes and setbacks.
The centrepiece of the $317-million village will be a heritage-listed, 42-room mansion on 8.9ha, about 40km south of Melbourne.
It is not clear when Ryman will begin work on the Mornington Peninsula facility, although it is targeting a late-2024 start on the $155-million retirement village it has planned and approved for 6.07ha at 27 Driscolls Road, Kealba, in Melbourne’s north-west.
Last month, Ryman revised its guidance for full-year 2024 underlying profit to $265 million to $285 million (NZD), down from a reported $300 million to $330 million, citing lower volumes on new sales.
In an announcement to the New Zealand Stock Exchange, Ryman said serviced apartments in particular were taking longer to sell than anticipated at villages where the business was yet to complete its main buildings.
“This projection of the full-year result is disappointing,” Ryman’s Umbers said in the announcement.
“Our current build program is unusually weighted towards four main buildings, which are nearing completion and form a key part of our resident value proposition.
“Although we have stock available to sell, a combination of market conditions and the expected phasing of main buildings will see sales deferred into FY25.”
