Every year the third week of January delivers a record number of searches on www.villages.com.au.

Last Monday, 18 January 2016, 3,885 searches were made by 3,564 new people. This is up 16% on last year’s January peak.

Over the twelve months of 2015 more than 1 million searches were made by about 750,000 different people. But consider this: just 20,000 people then bought into a village.

(With this traffic it is probable all 20,000 buyers compared offerings on www.vilages.com.au before they bought).

These figures tells us that demand for seniors accommodation far, far exceeds supply. And we are missing the boat. 1 million searches generated just 20,000 buyers.

In normal markets such demand would be met by increasing prices but village prices have hardly moved for most operators in the past 24 months. At the same time potential village buyers have been enjoying 15-20% prices hikes for the family home nationally. Is village marketing not connecting with consumers and what they want? Yes.

Are new businesses emerging to fill the gap? Yes. Is this acceptable? No.

(Note: If you do not have an $800p.a. promotional listing for your village on www.villages.com.au you are missing this unique group of potential, genuine village buyers).