Way clear for sale of 19 elder villages

Government clearance has been given to sell 19 private hospital and retirement villages, including one 16-village chain which has fetched $77.4 million.

The Overseas Investment Office cleared Greg Tomlinson and Graham Paull of Elrond Group Holdings and Wellington-based funder St Laurence Property & Finance to sell 16 retirement villages.

The buyer is Qualcare Holdings, a company owned by Elrond's majority shareholder, Tomlinson and Paull, and Ironbridge Capital, an Australasian private equity fund manager.

The properties, some bought during the last two decades, are in Auckland, Tauranga, Hamilton, Wellington, Picton, Nelson, Blenheim, Rangiora, Christchurch and Ashburton. Some properties were formerly owned by Presbyterian Support Northern.

Auckland retirement complexes sold include the Lady Allum Village at Milford, Meadowbank Village at Meadowbank and Elmwood Retirement Village in Manurewa.

Tomlinson said yesterday the price was a bargain and that many of the properties were worth more as bare land without the buildings.

"That's because the businesses are run down and they have been under quite a bit of price pressure to do with unions, wages and fee incomes," he said. As a result of the deal, Tomlinson said, he and Paull would retain a 30 per cent stake in the villages, which he expected to be upgraded.

In the second retirement village deal, the office suppressed price details. Macquarie Bank and FKP, both of Australia, got clearance to buy three villages in the Auckland area from Private Life Care of New Zealand and PLC Longford.

Hobson Heights Village at 1381 Dominion Rd in Mt Roskill, Hibiscus Coast Village at 101 Red Beach Rd north of Auckland and the Longford Park Village at 1, 2 and 5 Longford Park Drive in Papakura have sold in that deal involving 17.6ha of land.

A Macquarie subsidiary had bought 13 retirement villages including nine nursing homes and six hospitals providing care for more than 2000 residents, the office noted. Macquarie wanted to expand with a view to developing "a world-class retirement village business", it said.