New retirement villages regulations passed in New South Wales

The final form of the Retirement Villages Regulation 2025 (NSW) (New Regulations) has been passed and published by the NSW Government on 22 August 2025.

The New Regulations are intended to replace the current form of Retirement Villages Regulation 2017 (NSW) (Current Regulations) which will be repealed on 1 September 2025.

The changes being implemented under the New Regulations are an overall positive step toward better balancing the rights and interests of operators and residents in NSW.

Key action items

The key action items for operators in the immediate term include:

• updating all General Inquiry Documents and Disclosure Statements to reflect the new prescribed forms;
• updating asset registers to:
  • remove serial numbers and brand/model details;
  • remove the date of completion of construction and the costs of construction in relation to any buildings or infrastructure in the village; and
  • reflect the remaining effective life of each major item of capital;
• ensuring the prescribed terms in your village contracts (being the Key Terms, Financial Terms and General Terms) reflect any changes in the New Regulations.          

Please contact the Thomson Geer team if you need any assistance with actioning these changes.

Key changes in the New Regulations

We have reviewed the New Regulations against both the Current Regulations and the draft form of Regulations which was released for public consultation in early 2025 (Draft Regulations) and have outlined the key differences and changes below.

‍Capital maintenance report

• The New Regulations require operators to prepare a yearly 'capital maintenance report' (rather than the '3-year report' which was required under the Current Regulations).  
• The information required to be included in this report has not materially changed. Although it had been contemplated in the Draft Regulations that this report would:
  • need to cover all items of capital, the New Regulations have reverted to only major items of capital (in line with the Current Regulations); and
  • not need to include details relating to accumulated costs of maintenance or whether an operator proposes to replace or continue to maintain certain items, the New Regulations have reinstated those requirements (also in line with the Current Regulations).

Asset management plans

• The New Regulations still require the same content to be included in AMPs and the same information to be updated after each instance of maintenance or repair work.
• The Draft Regulations had contemplated the removal from AMPs of:
  • the 'accumulated cost' of maintenance work; and
  • recording details after each instance of 'repair work',
    but those requirements have now been reinstated in the New Regulations.

Revised asset management plans

•  The Draft Regulations had contemplated the removal of the need to provide 'revised' AMPs in circumstances where the total cost of capital maintenance for major items of capital is likely to increase by25% or more than originally estimated.  
• This requirement to provide 'revised' AMPs has been reinstated in the New Regulations, with the key difference from the Current Regulations being that an increase in capital maintenance costs is specified to now be calculated net of CPI increases.

Asset register

• The key differences in relation to the asset register to be maintained by operators under the New Regulations include:
  • no longer having to record the serial number or brand/model of each item in the register;
  • recording the remaining effective life of each item (rather than simply the 'effective life' which was specified under the Current Regulations), with associated changes included to allow operators to choose to estimate, or use the current taxation ruling standard, to determine the remaining effective life;
  • removing the need to record the date of completion of construction and the costs of construction in relation to any major items of capital which relate to a building or infrastructure in the village; and
  • allowing for 21 days to update the register(rather than the 7 days specified under the Current Regulations).
• The Draft Regulations had contemplated removing the need to record the 'purchase price' and the 'date of purchase' for each major item of capital, but those requirements have been reinstated in the New Regulations.

Available premises information to be provided or made available for inspection

• Operators have always been required to have available a detailed list of all currently available premises in the retirement village.
• The New Regulations now specify that the following details must be available for each of those premises:
  • the listed price of the premises;
  • the size of the premises in square metres; and
  • the number of bedrooms in the premises.

Prescribed form of General Inquiry Document and Disclosure Statement

• The prescribed form of general inquiry document and disclosure statement has been removed from the New Regulations and will now be published in the Government Gazette. The intention is that this will allow for more flexibility to make changes but, in our view, will cause some confusion for operators and residents as to whether or not the correct version is being used.
• As these documents may now be updated from time to time without notice, operators will need to ensure they are using the latest templates when preparing documents to be issued to prospective residents.

Disclosure Statement

• The New Regulations reinstate the provisions which require the inclusion of the average resident comparison figure (ARCF) for the premises and the village rules to be included in the disclosure statement (noting the Draft Regulations had contemplated removing the ARCF concept).
• The ARCF is now presented as a formula, but noting that the substance behind the calculation has not changed.‍

Court/Tribunal information to be made available for inspection

•  If the operator of a retirement village or the Residents Committee of the retirement village has been a party to any Court/Tribunal proceedings in the previous 5 years, the operator must make available for inspection by residents and prospective residents a copy of the reasons for decision and the orders made at the conclusion of the proceedings.
• Under the Current Regulation, these documents only needed to be made available for inspection if both the operator and the Residents Committee were parties to the proceedings.
• The result of these changes in the New Regulations are that, if the operator or the Residents Committee engage in litigation with third parties, the relevant documents will need to be made available for inspection (e.g. a dispute between an operator and a third party contractor or with an employee of the operator).

Changes to prescribed information and wording

•  There are a number of minor changes which have been made to the prescribed information and wording an operator is required to include in budget notices and recurrent charges variation notices.
• Although only minor, operators will need to ensure their template notices are updated to reflect these changes to avoid any risks associated with non-compliant notices being issued.

Agenda for annual management meeting

• The Draft Regulations had contemplated the need to include in the agenda for annual management meetings details regarding:
  • a proposed expansion of the village; and
  • any plans to sell the village or part of the village.
• The New Regulations have removed those items from the agenda requirements, which will mean that operators will have the flexibility to engage in redevelopment and sales discussions without needing to notify village residents.

How can we help?

We have been working closely with the industry and clients to prepare for these changes.  

Thomson Geer has also prepared a comprehensive AMP guide that assists operators understand the detailed requirements under the retirement villages legislation, as well as:

• providing practical recommendations for operators to follow when preparing and maintaining the plan; and
• including a checklist to assist operators check they have complied with the requirements under the retirement villages legislation.

We are in the process of updating our AMP guide to incorporate the changes to the requirements as a result of the New Regulations which will be available for operators to purchase. 

If you require further information or would like to discuss how these changes might affect you, please contact our Health, Aged Care and Retirement Living team. 

Authors 

Nikolas Miljkovic | Partner | +61 2 8248 3406 | nmiljkovic@tglaw.com.au

Ha Nguyen | Associate | +61 2 8248 5822 | hnguyen@tglaw.com.au

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