FROM golf havens and exclusive “lifestyle communities” to sustainable eco-retreats and luxe resorts, Australia’s retirees now have a plethora of enticing options when it comes to retirement living.
As competition heats up for the over-55s dollar, property developers and retirement village providers have gone into overdrive marketing their destinations as THE place to retire in style.
Boasting five-star facilities including bowling alleys, 18-hole golf courses, fitness studios and architect-designed clubhouses, this new breed of villages is aimed at retirees looking to downsize on everything but their lifestyle.
Work recently started on a $100 million makeover of Palm Lake Resort in Toowoomba. When completed, residents will have access to a 10-pin bowling alley, eight-rink championship lawn bowls green, golf simulator, tennis courts, gym and infinity-edge swimming pool to name a few of the attractions.
Palm Lake Group chief executive Manuel Lang said the concept of retirement is changing dramatically, with many retirees now living more active and adventurous lifestyles.
“Retirement now is about action, just as much as it is about relaxation,” he said. More than 184,000 seniors across Australia call a retirement village home, with three-quarters of those regularly taking part in activities organised by their village, according to figures from the Retirement Living Council.
More than half belong to social clubs or community groups and half undertake volunteer work.
And the Retirement Living Council says the growing number of baby boomers now at retirement age are attracted to the lifestyle benefits of retirement villages and look at the quality of the housing and the neighbourhood as well as the facilities on offer.
- If golf is your thing, read on.
On Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula, Village Glen’s nine-hole par three golf course was designed by acclaimed golf course architect Michael Wolveridge.
Word is residents play keenly-contested midweek and weekend comps, and can be seen quietly honing their skills between times. In Newcastle,
NSW, Aveo is set to open a retirement village development next to Shortland Waters Golf Club this year, with each independent living unit boasting car and golf cart parking and golf course or park views.
On Queensland’s Gold Coast another major property developer has snapped up the 18-hole Gainsborough Greens Golf Club from Mirvac,
While in WA the not-for-profit Lakelands Country Club has been given the go-ahead to build a 290-home retirement village on 10 hectares in Gnangara, near Perth.
- Join the Club
Community centres are now more commonly referred to as “the clubhouse” and outdated gyms with the odd running machine and hand weights have been replaced with state-of-the-art “recreation and wellness centres” resembling something from the set of a sci-fi movie.
Take the new German-designed smart-card operated gym at Palm Lake Resort Cooroy-Noosa, which opened in November. Decked out in white and silver, this fitness mecca features hi-tech Milon gym equipment designed by the company credited with inventing the first automatic tennis-ball serving machine.
Savannah Lifestyle Resort in Far North Queensland is set to open a new clubhouse this year complete with a minerals-based pool enriched with magnesium.
- Only way is up
To meet the growing demand for independent living options in established communities, or close to the CBD, developers are thinking of space-savvy solutions to provide more options for those who don’t want to leave the hustle and bustle of the inner suburbs.
Coupled with the rising cost of land and limited availability of urban space, get set to see more high-rise apartment-style retirement villages purpose built to suit the needs of over-65s.
In Sydney’s Hills District, BaptistCare has opened stage two of The Gracewood, an independent living community with modern apartments.
In Queensland, Southern Cross Care’s new five-storey apartment development, ParqueVista on Seville, offers modern units close to the Brisbane CBD.
Meanwhile, Aveo has been given the green light to build a medium rise project with 64 apartments at Bella Vista, just over 30km from Sydney’s CBD.
Executive officer Geoff Grady said seniors wanted places “that offered a sense of connectedness to the broader community and are within close proximity to nearby dining and shopping precincts”.
Modern Design
Today’s retirees are becoming more discerning with higher expectations of standard of living, according to seniors living and aged care architect Euguene Marchese of Marchese Partners.
Mr Marchese’s firm won the Most Outstanding Seniors Living Campus Design in the Over 50s Housing Awards for its design of Aveo Springfield Age Friendly Community in Queensland.
He said modern developments like this would become standard practice. “Too long seniors have had to put up with living in facilities that were designed in the 70s.
The retiring generation is giving the retirement sector a shakeup. No longer are they interested in just putting up with the current stock – they’re demanding more.”
Meanwhile, Seachange Emerald Lakes on the Gold Coast touts itself as an “exclusive gated community”, which heralds a “new era in country club estates for active over-50s” embodying the “vision of active, mind, body and soul”.
With this in mind, project director Phil Goodman says the clubhouse has been designed to “be sophisticated yet relaxed”. The resort was voted Queensland’s best community building for 2016 by the Master Builders Association.
“We are catering to an increasing segment of Australia’s population who demand very specific housing,” Mr Goodman said of the architecturally designed homes.
