Australia's largest community based village and care operator IRT (the rebranded Illawarra Retirement Trust) has expanded in to Queensland with the purchase of three retirement villages located north of Brisbane to the Sunshine Coast, investing $75 million.

Community based Not For Profit village and care operator IRT has announced its intention to expand nationally, with a first move being the purchase of three villages on the Sunshine Coast -  being the Bracken Ridge, Buderim and Currimundi Oasis Resort villages, with 356 ILUs completed and 202 set for development. In addition IRT is committing to develop a nearby Kawana Forest Greenfield site with a 60-bed care centre and an additional 110 ILUs. All up the investment by IRT is $75M. ANZ has funded the deal. Based in Wollongong, south of Sydney, CEO Nieves Murray says they have a number of LGA’s across Australia targeted; the Sunshine Coast has been on their agenda for 3 to 4 years now. She says they were first introduced to Oasis at the beginning of the year and then IRT negotiated direct with owner, Mal Pratt.

Since she took over nearly 6 years ago Nieves has built the 150 ILU Kanangra Waters village in Canberra which sold out within 12 months of completion, purchased The Links development at Wollongong from receivers and launched IRT Catering that now delivers 1.5 million meals annually.

Photo: Nieves Murray with IRT Project Manager Nathan Broad, 2012 Winner of the RVA Rising Generation Award