You're not buying property — you're taking a 45‑year Life Lease. Most of your money is held as an interest‑free loan and comes back to you (plus growth) when you leave. Here's every dollar, explained simply.
Your $260,000 isn't spent — it's mostly a loan. It splits into two parts, and both are returned to you when you sell.
An interest‑free loan to the operator, based on the build cost of a basic one‑bedroom villa. Held until you leave, then repaid to you — within 7 days of sale (or 12 months if unsold).
What you pay the outgoing resident for upgrades, a private garden, or a better location. The operator takes none of this. It's also returned to you when you sell.
Lease Fee + Improvements = the Current Market Value. This single number drives your weekly rent — set at exactly 0.1% per week of the value.
Money flows at entry, while you live there, and on the way out.
Your home price + a $3,300 admin fee + four weeks' fees paid in advance.
Rent, service fee, rates & water — heavily reduced by concessions if you qualify.
Home value + growth returned, less refurbishment & selling costs. No exit fee.
For a $260,000 home. The booklet is clear: beyond your home price, the only genuinely extra cost is the $3,300 admin fee — the advance payments are simply your first month's fees, prepaid.
No. The booklet states you pay only the purchase price plus the operator's $3,300 legal & document fee. The four weeks of fees paid up‑front aren't extra — they're your fees for the first month, just collected in advance. All fees are then billed monthly.
Four weekly charges add up — then government concessions (if you qualify) bring the real cost right down. Figures below for a $260,000 home.
Centrelink Rent Assistance and the Energy Concession are designed into the model. For an eligible single, the booklet shows the real weekly cost dropping dramatically.
Adjust the assumptions and watch entry, weekly and exit figures recalculate. Everything follows the booklet's stated rules; assumption‑based inputs are flagged.
The model is genuinely affordable on a weekly basis, but the trade‑off is the ~$190,000 interest‑free loan you hand over. You forgo the return that capital could otherwise earn, while the home's capital growth flows back to you. Two figures make the structure tangible:
Put simply: the weekly rent behaves like a ~5.2% p.a. charge on your home's value, and the opportunity cost of the loaned capital is the real (un‑invoiced) price of entry — partly offset by capital growth and the absence of stamp duty, strata fees and exit fees.