Side by side
| Question | Retirement village | Residential aged care |
|---|---|---|
| Who regulates it | The state. NSW Fair Trading says the NSW Government regulates retirement villages, not aged care. | The Commonwealth Government administers aged care legislation, in NSW Fair Trading’s words. Consumer Affairs Victoria adds that aged care accommodation costs are regulated by the Australian Government. |
| What it is | Consumer Affairs Victoria calls a village contract a legally binding, long-term agreement on how residents live, what they pay and what they receive when they leave. | The Department of Health, Disability and Ageing describes it as care for older people who can no longer live on their own at home, funded by the Australian Government to make it more affordable and accessible. |
| Health care | Generally not among a village’s services, though some village staff have health care backgrounds, say Consumer Affairs Victoria and Consumer Affairs Tasmania. | Providers must give each resident a minimum number of care minutes a day and have a registered nurse on site and on duty at all times at each facility. |
| The law | Each state’s retirement villages Act, such as Victoria’s Retirement Villages Act 1986 or Tasmania’s Retirement Villages Act 2004. | The Aged Care Act 2024. The department says the new Act started on 1 November 2025, alongside the new Support at Home program. |
When the care home shares the village grounds
Consumer Affairs Victoria says access to aged care services depends on an aged care assessment, in line with the Commonwealth Aged Care Act 2024.
That means, in its words, that an aged care operator “cannot keep places free” for a particular village’s residents, even on the same site or in the same building. It also warns that moving from a village into aged care may mean ending the village contract and paying the fees that go with it. Leaving the village starts that state’s payment clock, set out in the guide to being paid when you leave.
Paying for aged care from an exit entitlement
Consumer Affairs Victoria puts the problem plainly: a resident moving to aged care or other accommodation who cannot wait for the refund may be able to ask the operator to make advance payments straight to the new provider from the amount owed. NSW and South Australia have schemes of their own, each for its own group of residents.
New South Wales: the aged care rule
Residents can ask the operator to pay up to 85% of the calculated exit entitlement to an approved aged care facility, as a daily accommodation payment if they ask. NSW Fair Trading limits it to registered interest holders with a long-term registered lease giving them at least 50% of any capital gain, and only once the former resident puts the property on the market. Residents in strata schemes, company title and trust villages cannot use it, and one partner cannot stay in the unit while the other uses it to move into residential aged care. Residents do not have to share their financial information with the operator to use it.
In certain circumstances, if the premises still have not sold within 2 years of entering the aged care facility, section 182AB lets such a former occupant apply for an exit entitlement order.
Victoria: aged care payments
A non-owner resident moving into a residential care facility that has accepted them can ask the operator to pay the facility directly from their exit entitlement. Operators need not consider or make aged care payments for owner residents, who can ask for alternative accommodation payments for other kinds of accommodation instead. Consumer Affairs Victoria says the operator must make the payments if:
- a valid request has been made on the approved form;
- the residential care facility has accepted the resident;
- the request form sets out the amounts;
- the exit entitlement has not already been paid.
The first payment is due no later than 28 days ahead of the planned entry date, or as soon as practicable for a request made closer to it; for a resident already in the facility, within 28 days of the request or on the date it names. Advance payments under the aged care and alternative accommodation schemes together are capped at 85% of the operator’s reasonable estimate of the unpaid entitlement when payments begin, and are deducted when the entitlement is paid.
South Australia: operator payments
A resident leaving to enter aged care may be able to have the operator pay certain accommodation costs to the facility for them, with the amounts deducted from the exit entitlement. SA.GOV.AU lists what may make a resident eligible, among them: approval under the Aged Care Act 2024 for entry to residential care; a choice to pay a refundable accommodation deposit or contribution; and no immediate access to funds, or personal finances that paying would significantly affect. The written application goes to the operator within 60 days of being approved to enter the facility or of leaving the village, whichever is later. The operator must start the daily accommodation payment within 30 days of receiving it, and payments continue until the exit entitlement is paid or the operator has paid 85% of its reasonable estimate of it.
The first-days guide covers the start of a village contract, and the guide to disputes names who decides if an operator and a former resident disagree about the payments.