New style of seniors village created to obviate loneliness
LOS ANGELES: A new design innovation within a mulitgenerational village is designed to lift the level of social interaction and obviate social isolation.
An Australia-first seniors village planned for Margaret River is set to encourage multi-generational living to help combat elder loneliness, marking a move away from traditional retirement estates.
Everland Communities’ plan for a revolutionary $300 million village, Arbour, comes amid research showing loneliness is fast becoming a public health crisis, with the US Surgeon General last year declaring the mortality effect equivalent to smoking 15 cigarettes a day.
The upcoming South West estate seeks to combat isolation by encouraging multi-generational interaction between those in the over 250-lot over-55s land lease section, and those in the 420-lot regular housing estate, through shared facilities such as a central clubhouse.
The two communities will also share a resort-style 25m heated pool, tennis courts, a cafe, gym, outdoor movie cinema, a childcare centre, event space, a picnic area, playing fields, community gardens, an orchard and animal farm.
The centrally-located over-55s section includes some seniors-only facilities, such as a pool and clubhouse, for when the older residents want a quiet retreat.
Everland chief executive Tao Bourton — who turned the first sod this month — said the model for multi-generational living followed best practice in Europe, which has long focused on combatting elder loneliness.
“The UK has appointed a Minister for Loneliness because it is recognised that loneliness is one of the biggest killers,” he said.
Mr Bourton said the estate made it easier for seniors to live and recreate alongside their own adult children and grandchildren.
While Arbour’s regular housing will sell green-title lots or house-and-land packages, the seniors section only sells pre-built homes under the land lease model, in which residents own the home but rent the land it sits on. Some may qualify for a governmental rental rebate. Leases of 60 to 90 years can be resold.
While in normal markets the value of houses tends to fall as land values rise, some east-coast based seniors in land leases models have managed to onsell at a profit during the recent construction boom.
Mr Bourton said the bigger size of the estate ensured a better range of amenities for seniors.
He said the traditional deferred fee model was inherently flawed because operators only got profits until people sold. “As a deferred management fee operator, you are analysing everyone’s age and health and basically wishing the ill health of people as your profit is linked to this,” he said.
“Land lease is 100 per cent the way of the future, in my opinion,” he said. “It’s aligned with consumers, and operators get a weekly rent.”
Stockland sold its deferred fee Retirement Living business to EQT for $987 million in 2022 and has expanded its lend lease villages under the Halycon brand, including one in WA and 21 in the east.