With the continuing focus on the ageing of the population, governments in many western countries have looked at ways of accommodating the elderly. In addition to specialised retirement village accommodation, New South Wales has medium density developments constructed under SEPP 5 (Seniors Living).

The basic intention of the policy has been to increase the variety and amount of housing especially in areas with existing infrastructure and in reality this has been achieved. Recent research by Landsburys has looked at the municipalities where SEPP 5 developments have been commenced and are proposed.

This research shows three notable issues:

		The location of developments.
		The size of developments.
		The main players within the industry.

The following graph shows the total number of units in SEPP 5 developments according to municipalities from 2002 to 2007.

The top three municipalities are those that have a notable ageing demographic and have also received considerable pressure to embrace urban consolidation. Ku-ring-gai, Hornsby and Warringah municipalities are embracing the “ageing in place” mantra. A large proportion of SEPP 5 activity is in established localities indicating that the intention of the policy is being achieved.

The majority of SEPP 5 developments contained between 5 to 20 units per development and most municipalities averaged less than 10 units per development. This indicates that SEPP 5 is taking the place of smaller “urban infill” projects which may not have been undertaken if the policy was not in place.

The only municipality that bucked this trend was Randwick with the Prince Henry, Little Bay subdivision and development.

Most developers who undertake SEPP 5 developments are small local builders predominantly servicing one municipality. The largest developer of SEPP 5 projects is the Department of Housing.

The Department of Housing accounted for over 700 units across 60 developments within New South Wales. This equates to over 17 percent of total SEPP 5 developments. These developments ranged across the Sydney basin and New South Wales with no discernable location pattern.

The dominant role that the Department of Housing is taking in SEPP 5 development is an indication of how strongly the New South Wales Government is embracing the Commonwealth Government’s “ageing in place” policy.

SEPP 5 development is leading to “naturally occurring retirement communities” rather than planned retirement village complexes. However it still has a lot to do with local government planning and politics issues rather than projecting how and where retirees want to live.