Trends in retirement villages are following the customer. Just like the residential housing market where we are now building more apartments than we are freestanding homes, more retirement village apartments are being built than villa-style homes.
Why is this so? Well, there are a number of very good reasons.
The advantages of going up
New village residents want new, contemporary design. This is more easily achieved in an apartment compared to villas – it’s cheaper to build and faster to sell.
New village residents want to be able to walk to services like medical centres, cafes and shops. Only apartment land is available close to services.
The village residents want money left over when they downsize. Being more efficient to build makes apartments cheaper than a gated community. The village operator doesn’t have to build roads, sewerage systems etc.
Boom time for apartments
And everyone is doing it. Check these two latest projects. Uniting Communities in South Australia is demolishing its Maughan Church in the very centre of the city to build a 20-storey building that will include 46 retirement village units, 18 disability respite apartments and 21 specialist disability apartments.
It will also have a function centre, retail and office space, basement parking – and a new auditorium able to host church services.
Aveo is building two six-storey apartment buildings at Clayfield in inner Brisbane. It will have 66 apartments with 85 car spaces. The two-bedroom apartment starts at $565,000.
We have to build another 50,000 retirement village homes over the next ten years just to satisfy existing demand, before the baby boomers start moving in. Apartments are the only solution – and a popular one.
