Compare Villages to relaunch its website to a new consumer-focused version and provides support through a new online Compare Villages Community
2nd May, 2020 | AnnouncementsFor release: 8 May 2020
Compare Villages to relaunch its website to a new consumer-focused version and provides support through a new online Compare Villages Community
In the last two years since CompareVillages.com.au launched, it found solid success with providing a place that clearly set out and compared retirement villages’ lifestyle features and their fees – the only Australian website to balance comparing ‘product’ and ‘price’ in retirement living accommodation.
Compare Villages Founder and Managing Director, Jessica Kinnear said: “Being an experienced retirement living lawyer, the problem I was aiming to solve was what I had perceived to be a lack of knowledge in the community about retirement living, particularly around resident contracts and fees. The opportunity for retirement living operators was simple – be proactive and voluntarily disclose their fees online to better educate consumers and help them make more informed decisions, which would go to improving the negative public perception of retirement villages owing to “complex contracts” and “hidden fees”.”
Together with requiring operators to upload their resident contract fee information, the website enabled them to list their villages and any homes for sale with no upfront fee charged to do so, only a small fee charged to them per genuine enquiry generated from the website. The opportunity saw a range of operators come on board including the larger ones, however, others found the prospect of voluntarily participating in a transparent online comparison, a challenge.
Today Compare Villages has announced it will relaunch its website, from its current model where operators manage their village listings including features and fees, to instead collecting and maintaining this information itself, therefore now requiring consumers to subscribe to view and compare resident contract fees.
“Our decision to pivot – now maintaining the information ourselves and becoming consumer funded – will ensure complete independence from operators. This allows us to provide a fuller service offering to consumers with the ability to tap into unique insights from the Compare Villages resource, including providing retirement living legal advice to residents and prospective residents, without any conflict with operators. The ultimate vision is to become the leading advocacy service for retirement living customers in Australia,” said Jessica Kinnear.
Over the coming months, CompareVillages.com.au will be making changes to the website for the relaunch and listing all retirement communities in the Australian market. When ready it will be clear to users which operators have chosen to provide their fees where they’re not otherwise available.
In addition, Compare Villages has set up an online Compare Villages Community for people who have a question or comment about retirement living, as a place to make themselves heard, connect with others in the community who may be able to help and receive expert guidance from Compare Villages staff. If you are living in a retirement village or community, or thinking about moving into one, you’re encouraged to join. Jessica is also personally available to provide retirement living legal advice through her legal practice, Kinnear & Co. Lawyers.
“It’s an interesting time to expand our offering for consumers, given people may be hesitant to move into a retirement village at the moment. However, they may take this time to reflect on where they are and what their next move will be once this difficult period is over. I know there are many people isolated in their own homes right now. A retirement community may offer the security and support needed into the future,” said Jessica Kinnear.
For media enquiries, please contact:
Emily Kinnear on 0408 359 184 or at [email protected]