Selling up the family home and buying into a retirement village is a big decision for any ageing person or couple. People mostly understand these days that it’s generally not a particularly good financial investment. But that has to be weighed against the excellent lifestyle opportunities retirement villages can offer.

In short the use of ‘exit fees’, more correctly described as ‘deferred management fees’, allow capital rich retirees to enjoy a standard of living now that their income would not otherwise support, on the basis that they pay for it later from their capital when they exit. Exit fees, along with the legislated right to enforce a minimum age limit, are the defining characteristic of a retirement village, as compared to other clustered communities aimed at retirees but not registered under the Retirement Villages Act.