The momentum of new legislation across all states makes it now official: Manufactured Home Estates (MHEs) are now officially termed ‘Residential Land Lease Communities’ or RLLCs.

James Kelly, CEO of Lifestyle Communities in VIC outlined that across Australia today there are just 170 pure RLLCs with 62% of them (105 ) controlled by the eight biggest operators. The state breakdown is:

NSW  79, QLD  57, VIC  20, WA  10, SA  4

Nationally there are a further 750 that are mixed tourist parks and permanent resident communities and 1,600 pure tourist parks.

All up the RLLC sector is building 800 new homes a year. Kelly regards them as ‘affordable housing’ with his starting price at $165K up to $350K; the average is $280K.

(Editor’s note: Halcyon in QLD has built and sold an RLLC home for $1.12M on Hope Island).

Lifestyle Community’s average age of entry is 65 to 70 but that age of entry is ‘coming down’. The average stay is six to eight years and the most popular next destination is a granny flat.