A gated over-60s development is planned at Nutleys Creek Road in Bermagui. Photo: Bega Valley Shire Council website.
Residential parks, sometimes known as land lease developments or manufactured home estates (MHEs), are increasingly springing up as affordable housing options. The pros and cons will be examined in two articles, starting with why some people, including academics, think they are an unwelcome solution.
In Narooma the developer of a proposed 200-home, over-50s residential development is appealing to the Land and Environment Court of NSW after Eurobodalla Shire Council rejected the development application (DA) in May.
Bega Valley Shire Council (BVSC) is currently assessing a DA for a 120-home development for over-60s in Bermagui. The DA was originally for 162 homes in a “seniors living lifestyle resort development”.
Last month BVSC approved plans for Merimbula Lake Holiday Park to remove 54 short-term camping sites and add 110 long-term sites, taking the total to 164 long-term sites. The DA said the land lease development would provide alternative and affordable housing opportunities. Caravans and moveable dwellings would be installed there.
BVSC is also considering another DA to add 98 long-term sites at a Kalaru caravan park.
Dr David Bunce of Flinders University said Australians started living in caravan parks in the late 1960s and it was formalised in NSW in 1986.
Sketch of a 200-house, over-50s development proposed in Narooma. Photo: Eurobodalla Shire Council website.
An article published five years ago, “What are manufactured home estates and why are they so problematic for retirees” outlines two main concerns: their location and the business model.
Lois Towart, lecturer in property economics at University of Technology Sydney, and Kristian Ruming, Associate Professor in urban geography at Macquarie University, wrote that MHEs evolved from caravan parks. NSW state planning legislation allows MHEs to be developed on land where caravan parks are permitted. That includes rural land and land prone to floods and bushfires. That land is generally cheaper than land zoned for residential development.
“The result is medium-density housing occupied by older Australians in locations where similar permanent residential development would not be permitted,” they wrote.
MHEs are appearing in many coastal and rural locations, distant from retail, commercial and community amenities and often there is no public transport. So, residents without private transport have difficulty accessing services and amenities.
They wrote that allowing MHEs to be located on sites where caravan parks are permissible has created a planning loophole. “Following rejection of a DA for a MHE at the local government level, operators are able to get approval at the state level.”
This is what could happen with the Narooma DA.
Locality plan for the Merimbula Lake Holiday Park. Photo: Bega Valley Shire Council website.
Dr Towart and Dr Ruming said the MHE business model was like caravan parks in that the MHE operator owned the land and rented individual dwelling sites to people. Those residents then purchased a relocatable home and paid a rental to the operator for the land.
Many retirees can anticipate living in an MHE for 20 years or more. By then, a relocatable home has minimal value. Residents are left with little financial resources for residential aged care if needed.
“When the total cost of house purchase and site rental for 20 years is compared with living in conventional residential housing, MHE living is less affordable,” Dr Towart and Dr Ruming wrote.
Merimbula Lake Holiday Park resident Jacquelyn Hayes spoke against the DA at last month’s BVSC council meeting. She said she had read articles about how MHEs could end up being a financial prison. “I am looking at that financial prison right now,” she said.
“It is not affordable housing. It is affordable to get into housing, but then you can’t get out of it,” Mrs Hayes said.
The park operator did not notify her about the substantial impact the proposed development would have on her home.
“We are considered to be on the land they own, not neighbours,” Mrs Hayes said. “They don’t have to notify us of anything. It is a totally different view of ownership.”
Dr Bunce said residential parks and MHEs were a good option for people, especially retirees, who chose to live that lifestyle.
His major concern with them is there is no guarantee residents can live out their lives there. He said while residents of retirement villages had a lifetime licence to occupy the house and land, there was much less legislative protection for park residents.
