Retirement - the age of content

Retirement villages are booming - but the buyers aren't necessarily the retiring type, Lynne Greenwood learns

There are few blank days in Linda Broughton's diary. In a typical week last month, she joined a group of friends on a country walk on the Monday with a stop for a pub lunch, sampled an aqua-fit session in the local high school swimming pool on Wednesday, and enjoyed a facial at the clubhouse "pamper day" on Friday.

In between, she discussed plans for landscaping her large garden with a designer, enjoyed a visit from her granddaughter, who is studying at a nearby university, and drove to a community hall for an evening of ballroom dancing.

The 66-year-old widow says life is fuller than ever since she swapped her two-bedroom bungalow in her home town of Bolton, Lancashire, for a two-bedroom bungalow within yards of the beach at Middleton Towers, Britain's largest retirement village for over-55s, near Morecambe, Lancs.

That was in July, when Linda, a retired telephone fault repair officer, became one of the first to move to the new village on the 80-acre site of a former holiday camp. The developer, Prestigious Retirement Villages of Warrington, Cheshire, eventually plans to build 570 homes there.

By October, after a razzmatazz launch by Jim Bowen and a concert by The Bachelors, Linda had been joined by 30 neighbours, with an average age of 64.

advertisementMiddleton Towers is one of a growing number of developments catering for the burgeoning "grey" population. Britain has more pensioners than children for the first time, according to the Office for National Statistics, and by 2016 there will be 400,000 more women aged over 60 and men over 65 than children under 16.

The idea of living alongside neighbours of a similar age, in a secure environment with leisure facilities a nd a range of care packages, is increasingly appealing to "downsizers". Many developments include properties designed for independent living, alongside apartments or suites for "assisted living", where a degree of care is needed. Some have a nursing home.

Although such communities are widespread in America, they are a relatively new concept in the UK, so hard evidence about their impact on residents' health, social well-being and quality of life is yet to be analysed.

But research for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, the social policy research and development charity, says retirement villages are seen as a "positive choice [by people] who like the combination of security and independence".

A new study for the foundation's housing trust looked at seven schemes and concluded that no single dominant model is most effective. Entry criteria differ, with schemes developed in partnership with housing associations and local authorities being more likely to respond to local needs. Most developments include on-site care services.

Karen Croucher, research fellow at York University, who conducted this and an earlier study, concluded that when people move to a retirement village, it can benefit the housing market by releasing significant numbers of under-occupied properties.

The Joseph Rowntree Housing Trust, which opened Britain's first "continuing care retirement community" at Hartrigg Oaks, near York, in 1998, is now developing retirement communities in Hartlepool and Scarborough.

While Age Concern accepts that retirement villages can provide "numerous benefits", it acknowledges that not all older people have the option - or desire - to move into one.

The charity's director general, Gordon Lishman, says: "The best are probably the villages which offer a variety of ownership and renting options and integrate with the wider community, as living in a gated development could lead to older people missing out on valuable contact with people of other age groups.

"It is important that a range of housing options are available to older people. A recognition that their needs must lie at the heart of future planning is urgently needed to meet the housing challenges we face." Buyers following in Linda Broughton's footsteps to Middleton Towers will have plenty of options.

To know more: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/property/main.jhtml?xml=/property/2007/11/22/npretire122.xml&page=1



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