Retirement villages to become “biggest thing in housing”

Monday, 20 February 2012

Specially designed retirement villages are perfect for pensioners - giving care and convenience at an affordable price, according to residents. Such villages are common in the US, New Zealand, Australia and South America but are now springing up in the UK as baby boomers reach retirement.

In fact, according to experts, we are poised for a massive surge in their popularity in this country, making them “the biggest thing in housing in the next 25 years.”

Country-club style

In a typical village, houses are grouped around country-club style facilities at a mansion house - with doctors and nurses on call, along with a night porter. Residents are able to enjoy top amenities including a restaurant, gym, swimming pool, library, hairdresser, fitness classes and even lectures.

The first ever retirement community was built in Sun City in Arizona in 1960 and now has 42,000 residents. Bob, 84, and Anne Sears, 68, who live in a pretty two-bedroom cottage in a retirement village near Maidstone, in Kent, say they can see why the concept has proved so popular.

Three years ago, the couple - who say they’ve “never regretted” downsizing - sold their five-bedroom home in Essex and became the first to move to the village set in 450 acres of parkland.

Own furniture

Anne said: “We brought our furniture with us. To move somewhere and not be able to take our furniture would have been upsetting. “If you need care, it’s cheaper than being in a care home. Here you have all the carers.” Some of the villages built across Britain have care homes attached, meaning it is easy to transfer into full-time care if the time comes.

Residents purchase their own homes and retain their independence, unlike in a care home. And those who live in villages are less than half as likely to move into an institutional care home after five years. They are also less likely to fall.

An average care home costs £26,200 a year, while nursing home costs £36,000 yearly. Properties at retirement villages typically sell for between £250,000 and £500,000. London’s first luxury retirement village, near Battersea Park, boasts prices of £400,000 to £2.5 million for penthouse apartments.

Ashley Seager, co-founder of the Intergenerational Foundation, which backs retirement villages, said: “We are contacted by many old people who feel trapped in a big house and would wish to move to more suitable accommodation if only they could find some.

“Too much development in recent years has been of the wrong sort.” Only a small fraction of Britons live in retirement villages compared to elderly Americans. But, says Mr Seager, the figure will rise quickly - with retirement villages becoming “the biggest thing in housing for the next 25 years”.