Lifestyle SA
4 reviews
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My mother lived in one of these Lifestyle Villages in SA South. Please do your homework and read your contracts. My mother bought her unit 14 years ago for $250,000 and Lifestyle sold it when she passed away in 2025 for $490,000. Let,s just say with there exuberant exit fees she hardly made any money. Absolutely disgusting how much money these Lifestyle villages make out of the elderly. My advice is STAY AWAY!!! They make it look great until you have to leave and go into a nursing home or pass away
Do your home work – So this is our experience. Lease purchased 10 years ago and lesees pass away. Family imforms lifestyle, no compassion, no sorry for your loss, but please make good and empty within the week. Under the contract on death, lifestyle do not have to provide any info to family except for a condition report, marketing policy ($14k payable) and a sale report on the 28th of each month. If there are offers they can accept within a 10% range and do not have to notify the executors. Sale calc is: 1% of original sale price payable per year of occupancy. Capital gains 75% of new sale price less original sale price, but deducted from original sale price. Maintenance levy ?
So best situation example is: Purchase $400k Sell $550k 10 year lease (1% p/yr) = $40k Capital gain (75% of $150) = $112k Remarking $14k Plus any make good costs.
So… $400k (original price) less - $40k - $112k - $14k = $234 payable back to the estate. Thats a loss of $164k.
Pro’s Gate community Like minded people Clean and relative maintenance free Cons Rip off No control Rude and arrogant No compassions Ambiguous contracts Verdict DO YOUR HOME WORK! you have worked hard for your money all your life, you sell your family home and I guarantee that you will loose when you leave. Buy a strata unit or house close to a hospital rather than buy into a retirement village.
Lovely Village – My mother and father have been living in one of the beautiful Lifestyle SA Villages for three years now and love it. I visit them most weekends when I get a chance and we have a great time with some of the locals. I am seriously considering to buy one of the homes in this village when I retire
- +2
Why one star? Because there are no minus stars – Maybe I have something wrong or misunderstood what has happened over 17 years. The perfect business model ✨️ My understanding of the operations of Lifestyle sa. Established by a teacher, architect and a builder. The builder Fairmont Homes - Known for underpaying or not paying contractors - Brags about donations to political parties when being convicted of drink driving. - Known for low quality builds - Gets approval to build 11 retirement villages. - Alters plans without council approval. - As soon as the build is considered finished hands over the village to another of his companies Lifestyle sa. - On the condition that any faults or unfinished work is done by the operator, Lifestyle sa.
The operator, Lifestyle sa - Says anything to get a sale/lease. - Underpays staff by some 2 million dollars. - Refuses to consult residents about changes. - Repairs all faults and faulty, poor work by the builder at the expense of residents. - "Buys" the residents committee/incorporated association by paying for their lawyers twice at lease. - Then allows an incorporated association to take over all the duties of the residents committee except for the consultation with the operators. Note incorporated associations are for invited membership ONLY. Take all profits of the social activities and pays for incorporated association's members social outings, SARVRA memberships and newsletters ...no benefits available to non-members. Incorporated Associations are also not part of any contract or the Retirement Villages Act and Regulations. - The various directors are constantly fighting amongst themselves and making changes and conflicting statements. - The contracts are changed so there is no way of cross referencing and the conditions of purchases change, unless one goes to SACAT - All upgrades to units are paid for by a Capital Item Replacement Fund but are not available to the existing residents that contributed to the CIRF. ☆ Finally it is stated by Lifestyle sa that residents pay for the total cost of running the head office which is used primarily for sale. ☆ That the village office, staff, utilities, equipment etc is used for sales and sales is the priority of the village office. ☆ That upon leaving the village Lifestyle sa take upwards of 50% of the releasing/sales price again upgrading the units for sale. - That is charging 3 times for the sales, advertising, and sales staff and equipment.
The perfect business model. • Run a business with no overheads at all. • Make sure you have clients that .are old, may have dementia, or better still die after a couple of years. The quicker the turnover the more profits for Lifestyle sa and the directors. • Don't keep promises or contracts. • Offset all cost onto clients at the point of sale, during the contract and again as selling or releasing. • During the lease period do as little maintenance as possible, get the residents or "volunteers" to do the work one would expect to be covered by the maintenance fees. • If a client complains tell them to they can always leave, so Lifestyle sa can make even more money. • If the client is stupid enough to believe in justice and goes to SACAT. The person presiding can argue operator's case, then make the decision/order on those arguments.
Don't believe anything you are told, certainly don't believe the contract is the same for every resident, that there is full disclosure, transparent operations and well balanced mechanism for dispute resolution.
But appreciate this is only the opinion of someone living in a village for 17 years and is fed up with all the inaccurate Lifestyle sa AGM minutes, deception and breaches of the Retirement Villages Act and Regulations, that the governing authorities refuse to do anything about and changes to contracts without written agreements. In my opinion.
“If you make more money doing it than it costs to get caught for doing it, continue doing it.” The above quote is the basis of THE DEVIL HAS A NAME.
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David 1mo ago - 17 years and you never had a house of your own, you would have to be one of those POMS who lived in a council housing slam in some low socio-economic slum in the UK and now you live in Australia and comparing like a winging POM that you are. Pitty you never got a life and it's a pity we let you come and live in Australia. This country does not need morons like you mate. Go and live in a 3rd world country and then complain D H
Ken Lew 3d ago Is this message to me? D.H. If so I am not a POM. In Australia we pay daily for the mistakes of the English. I have most probably owned more property and businesses in my life than you. We are not a third world country
I just believe very strongly in every resident in a retirement village being treated equally. Which cannot happen with committees that are more interested on their Happy Hours than the interested of ALL RESIDENTS...and in most Lifestyle sa villages overspent $100,000 on refurbishment of the bowling greens, that should have only cost $30,000. = $130,000 of the CIRF spent unnecessarily.
Get your facts right. You will learn one day that Lifestyle sa personal lie, very convincingly. Only interested is making as much money as possible as quickly as possible. Hence the reason they want the oldest people as possible as residents.
Before you go into a Lifestyle sa village I suggest you read the reviews from the Sands, Lifestyle sa Unley and SACAT.
But that is only my opinion and you are certainly entitled to your own.
What up sets me most is the elderly are told to have Aged Care Directives, Power of Attorney and then the Government and Government agencies allow a committee or incorporated association committee represent and make decisions on behalf of residents. I may not be a lawyer but ABSOLUTELY NO ONE CAN REPRESENT MYSELF OR ANY OTHER RESIDENT WITHOUT WRITTEN PERMISSION.