What your retirement village contract takes back when you leave

It is an exit fee: a percentage of the unit price that builds up for every year you live there and is taken when the unit is resold. It is also called a departure fee or an exit fee. The Census reports the average maximum across 972 Australian villages at 33%, and typical rates run 3% to 7% a year.

On most Australian contracts, no. The Census reports the most common contract type as the fee charged on what you paid with no separate share of the capital gain at all - about two thirds of villages offering a deferred payment structure. Over the average stay that single clause is usually worth more than the fee itself.

It depends on your state, and the range runs from nothing to no limit at all. In South Australia, and in Victoria for a contract signed from 1 May 2026, the operator picks up the charges the day you cease to reside. An older Victorian contract can run them for up to six months. In New South Wales the cap is 42 days. In Queensland you pay for 90 days and then a share worked out on the gross ingoing contribution, until the unit sells or nine months passes. In the ACT you pay 42 days and then a share worked out on the capital gain, which on the most common contract is nothing, so the operator carries the rest. In Western Australia, Tasmania and the Northern Territory there is no statutory cap at all, and on the Census average that is about $14,970 over a two year sale.

Anywhere from six months to no deadline at all, depending on the state. Queensland requires payment within 18 months of the termination date. South Australia, Victoria for a contract signed from 1 May 2026, and Western Australia since 1 September 2026 require 12 months. Tasmania requires six under s 12(a). New South Wales and the ACT each give six months to one kind of resident and nothing to the other, in opposite directions: in New South Wales the exit entitlement order is open only to a registered interest holder, and in the ACT the six month long stop in s 238(2)(h) applies only to a former occupant who is not one. Only the Northern Territory sets no deadline at all.

No, and that is where most of the money hides. On about 87% of Australian villages the contract is a loan and licence or a loan and lease: the ingoing contribution buys a right to occupy, not the unit. You are not on the title and you are not the owner, and what comes back at the end is an exit entitlement worked out under the contract rather than a sale price. That is why a deferred management fee can exist at all, and why a village unit usually costs less than the same unit bought outright.

It depends on one line in the fee clause, and on an ordinary stay that line is worth six figures. A fee on the ingoing contribution is a percentage of what you paid. A fee on the outgoing contribution is a percentage of what the next resident pays, so it collects the whole of the market’s growth on top of the fee itself. On the Census average unit over eight years the difference is around $149,000, and the words that decide it come immediately after the percentage.

No. Once the cap binds (on a 5% fee capped at 33%, that is part way through year seven) the fee stops growing and the exit entitlement stops falling. But on a contract with no share of the capital gain that entitlement is then frozen in nominal dollars for the rest of the stay while the unit keeps appreciating for somebody else. Between years eight and twelve on the Census average the resident’s entitlement does not move and the operator collects a further $323,000 of growth. The cap is not protection; it is the point at which the fee stops being the problem.

Not necessarily, and this calculator does not say so. A village costs more than owning the same unit outright, because the fee is the price of not having bought it. What it buys in exchange is a lower price on the way in, the services the recurrent charge pays for, and a community with somebody on call. What the calculator does is put a number on the first half so the second half can be weighed against it.

On average it tops out at 33% of the unit price. The Census reports that average maximum for the deferred management fee, and it builds up at typically 3% to 7% for each year you live there. On the average $651,000 unit that is a six figure sum. On most contracts you also give up the capital gain, which over an average stay can cost more than the fee itself.

Multiply the yearly rate by the years you lived there, stop at the cap, then apply that percentage to the amount your contract names. On a 5% a year fee capped at 33%, the cap is reached part way through year seven. What the percentage is charged on matters most: a fee on what the next resident pays also collects the market's growth. This calculator runs all of it on your own figures.

You pay far more for each year you stayed. On the most common contract, 5% a year capped at 33% on a $651,000 unit, a three year stay costs $114,285 against what was paid in, about $38,000 a year. The same contract over twelve years works out at about $18,000 a year. Some contracts have a settling in period, commonly 90 days, with a full or nearly full refund.

The contract does not end on the day of death. The charges usually keep running, the fee usually keeps building up, and the estate cannot be settled until the unit sells. In most states the legal clock starts when the keys are handed back, not at the death itself. Under a Victorian contract signed from 1 May 2026 the monthly charges stop on the day of death, and in Queensland the payment deadline can move to 14 days after probate is shown.

It depends mostly on how long you stay. A land lease community has no deferred management fee and no transfer duty on the land, but the site fee never stops and the home does not grow in value the way land does. A village fee is front loaded and then capped, so on a short stay a land lease community usually wins by a wide margin.

Contract review typically runs $800 to $2,500, and it can take one to three weeks. A solicitor tells you what the clauses mean. This calculator does a different job: it prices what those clauses cost at three, five, eight and twelve years, and next to staying put, downsizing and a land lease community. Arriving at a review with the numbers already done changes what the appointment is about.

Exact figures for every option: the fee year by year from year one to the year the cap binds, what comes back at three, five, eight and twelve years to the dollar, the three clauses priced individually so you know what to look for in your own contract, and the village ranked against staying put, downsizing and a land lease community on one stated measure.