Veteran village developer and operator, Geoff Cox, has decided to place his entire village development portfolio up for sale. Having sold the award-winning 190 ILU Tea Gardens Grange to RSL LifeCare in 2011, he is 65 ILUs into the 281 ILUs planned for the nearby The Hermitage village. In addition he has approval for the 215 ILU The Heritage in Bathurst (along with 100 beds in a co-located facility) and another approved development at Mudgee for 206 ILUs.

Cox states he has to clear the decks because the Commonwealth Bank at short notice called in a $4.5M facility. The ANZ has also been supporting him through a nine year separate planning battle in Tea Gardens but with no light at the end of the tunnel they too want their obligations cleared. Consequently he has called in an Administrator for an orderly disbursal.

He questions whether there is a future for multi-village private developers like he and his son Andrew. He states simply that the banks don’t like the sector [while also giving credit to ANZ and CBA for their support]. This week in Perth we had the same conversation with operators. That said, Paul Sullivan of Bendigo & Adelaide Bank and Stig Anderson of ANZ both say their door is open.