Retirement living: 2016 CENSUS SNAPSHOT
17 Apr 2017
The 2016 PwC/Property Council Retirement Census, the largest annual snapshot of data and trends in the Australian retirement living sector, has confirmed strong rates of occupancy and a continuing shift to an older resident.
Made up of data provided by operators of more than 53,000 retirement and independent living units across Australia, the census found the average age of new residents has risen to 75 (up from 74 last year), while the average age of current residents is 80.
Australian retirement villages now have a 92 per cent occupancy rate, again confirming the growing popularity of retirement living among Australia’s senior population.
“What we can see from the research is that retirement villages can extend the independence and quality of life of their residents,” says Ken Morrison, Chief Executive of the Property Council of Australia.
OTHER NEWS
WORRYING SURGE IN NUMBERS OF OLDER HOMELESS WOMEN
Mission Australia is urging the government to take action to reduce the number of older women becoming homeless.
CEO Catherine Yeomans said, “Older women who are renting are vulnerable to rental stress and at risk of homelessness.
“They can be forced to dip into their limited retirement savings, if any, to make ends meet. We know that women tend to have less superannuation than men due to time out of the labour market for caring and lower average earnings.”
To combat the increasing demand for homes that are accessible for older people, Mission Australia has urged the Commonwealth, State and Territory governments to facilitate funding of at least 200,000 new social homes by 2025.
Ms Yeomans said, “Affordable housing is key to both preventing homelessness and moving people out of homelessness when it occurs. The risk of homelessness for older women can be greatly reduced by adequate provision of housing that is affordable on the aged pension
MALARIA VACCINE PROJECT LAUNCHED
The Rotary Clubs of Southport, Broadbeach and Hope Island (District 9640) are supporting the fight against malaria.
Developed at the Institute for Glycomics at Griffith University, PlasProtecT® is a novel malaria vaccine candidate that consists of whole malaria parasites grown in a laboratory under strictly controlled conditions. A pilot clinical study for healthy human volunteers has demonstrated that the vaccine is safe and able to induce an appropriate response in the immune system.
The next step: raising funds
Rotary is an organisation of business and professional leaders, and Probus is a community service activity of Rotary clubs. Rotary is also committed to furthering humanitarian causes. The Rotary Clubs of Southport, Broadbeach and Hope Island (District 9640) are now seeking funding to demonstrate that PlasProtecT® is safe and effective for a larger number of human volunteers and, more importantly, that the vaccine can protect people from malaria infection. This fundraising project, supported by District 9640 Governor Michael Irving and in partnership with Griffith University, has recently been registered by Rotary Australia Benevolent Society (RABS) and endorsed by the National Committee of Rotarians Against Malaria (RAM). At the time of going to print, His Excellency General the Honourable Sir Peter Cosgrove AK MC (retd), Governor-General of Australia, has confirmed he will officially launch the project on 27 March.
Would you like to help?
Every donation, no matter how small, helps. Donations can be made as a one-off, or fortnightly, monthly, annually or biannually. A tax-deductible receipt will be sent to you.
For online donations visit: www.rawcs.com.au. For cheque donations address to: Development of a Malaria Vaccine, PO Box 84, Southport QLD, 4215. (For receipt purposes, include name, address and post code.)
Of course, the decision to donate is yours alone and has no bearing on your Probus membership.
TIME OF NEED
Approximately 3.2 billion people live in malaria endemic areas worldwide. In 2015, there were approximately 214 million cases of malaria and 438,000 deaths, mostly children under five. Vaccination is the key to shifting the fight against malaria from sustained control to eradication. Despite global efforts, there is no effective malaria vaccine available.
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