SA retirement waitlist crisis: new data reveals alarming shortfall

Older South Australians are languishing on waiting lists for suitable retirement accommodation, with new data revealing almost one in five Australians looking to make their final move are located in the festival state. The Retirement Living Council has warned the pipeline of new accommodation for the aged has hit a brick wall, as the recently released 2025 PwC-RLC Retirement Census shows 26,825 Australians are currently on waitlists. South Australia accounts for 17.8 per cent (about 5000) of these. According to the report’s forecast, the number of residents aged over 75 by 2040 is set to surge by 64 per cent, with that number expected to exceed 282,000. It has highlighted the lack of suitable housing now, and raised concern that the current investment in infrastructure will be insufficient to house the state’s aged in the future. RLC executive director Daniel Gannon said almost 27,000 waitlist registrations was illuminating. “Older Australians want retirement communities, but the pipeline has hit a brick wall,” he said. “The queue keeps getting longer while too many retirement living projects disappear into a maze of planning delays, regulation and red tape. Daniel Gannon, executiv...