Dr Al: Living in Retirement
- Replies 3
Note from the Editor:
This article was written by member Alan G.
In order to write an article about ‘retirement living’, it seems that our own experience and the reasons for our choices would be advantageous for many people who, like us, are beginning to find stairs more ‘difficult’ to encounter and so on.
Our move from Western Australia:
There were a number of reasons for our desire to leave where we lived in WA: the progressive discomfort of climbing and descending the stairs of our two-storey kit home; the distance from hospitals and other medical services; and our desire to simply be somewhere ‘different’!
In WA, as in all other States, there were a number of ‘Lifestyle Resorts’ for the over fifties, but the only one that really drew our attention was called ‘El Caballo’. It had been a horse show tourist attraction for some years, but the owners had turned it into one of these resorts. Because we hadn’t seen any others at that time, it seemed rather an attractive proposition. I was coming up to late retirement, and it was essential (for us) that we could create a reasonable ‘quality of life’ by only receiving the pension. Luckily, we’d always been quite frugal – no booze, no ciggies and so on – so after we’d done the maths, El Caballo had seemed a good choice. Unfortunately, they seemed to be ‘dragging the chain’ regarding the development of the site, so we started to look elsewhere.
We did a lot of ‘Google’ research and flew to Port Macquarie in March 2013, where we looked at some pre-manufactured ‘Norfolk Homes’ at a Lifestyle Village. We also visited the factory. We didn’t like the rocky nature of the coast, though, and the ‘skid’ houses seemed a bit like a caravan park. We flew to Ballina via Sydney in December 2013, but although the homes were nice enough, we didn’t like the ‘open plan’ nature of the housing at the Retirement and Lifestyle Village. The houses had no separating fences, and we were worried about dogs and so on. There happened to be a ‘Retirement Expo’ at a Club in the town, and a lot of companies were displaying their offers. We liked the look of ‘Ruby Gardens’ in Brisbane – part of the ‘Living Gems’ offering. We decided to drive from Ballina to Brisbane, where we found what we were looking for.
What we were looking for:
Living Gems Lifestyle Resorts, like many others, have no ‘exit fee’ or ‘deferred management fee’ (DMF). This meant that the home would be our own and become part of our estate. The land, however, was leased, and a monthly ‘rental’ fee included Council rates and maintenance fees. We avoided any lifestyle village that did not exclude exit fees or DMFs.
The homes at Ruby Gardens were all built on-site. A slab was laid for each home, but then floor joists were put on it, and the house was built on those. The house is then deemed to be ‘portable’, but it would be quite interesting to see how that could possibly be carried out!
Because of the ‘manufactured home’ category, I suppose Centrelink allows a certain amount of rent relief, which boosts the pension slightly. There are also other expense reliefs granted by the owners of Living Gems. Residents receive a regular rebate on the electricity cost, and the owners of Living Gems are also able to get a good deal on the cost per kWh.
We were also looking for designs of homes that catered for older people, such as eye-level ovens, kitchen drawers instead of cupboards and pantry drawers – in fact any design choice that minimises bending down or stretching up. We liked the idea of space and safety in showers – no hidden ‘steps’ that we’d encountered at some hotels and Airbnbs in our travels.
Ruby Gardens, once again in common with many resorts, has a good-sized swimming pool and hot spa, an excellent Clubhouse (for in-house concerts, bingo, meetings, indoor bowls, games and parties). The Clubhouse also has a games room (snooker, table tennis and darts) , a music room, a small cinema in which residents can show their own movies, a hair-dressing salon where a visiting hairdresser calls most days of the week and a comprehensive bar (run by the residents). There is also a well-equipped gym, full-sized bowling green, tennis court, croquet court, bocce (boule or petanque) ‘court’, barbeque area and a fully-equipped ‘men’s shed’. Of course, the resort is ‘gated’, and all residents have a non-contact electronic opener in addition to being provided with a code to open the gate. Emergency services vehicles also have their own code to enter the village. All homes have ‘panic buttons’ placed strategically to sound an external alarm in the event of an emergency (medical or otherwise). There are bus stops on either side of the road near the entrance gate and very quick access to many shops, dentists, doctors and so on. The train station for Brisbane and the Gold Coast is less than 10 minutes away by bus.
We’d done plenty of research into Retirement villages/Lifestyle Resorts and the homes at Ruby Gardens ‘ticked all the boxes’. The only downside is the fact that we cannot use the equity in the home to fund holidays, etc., since we are not able to obtain title to the land because we don’t own it. There is another resort group that is able to do just this – Ingenia – but the homes cost more, so the inconvenience of no home equity for land-lease homes may not be such a drawback.
Solar hot water and solar PV panels could be fitted to the roof, but the ‘feed-in’ tariff is only 5c/unit, and in our case, it is simply not worth it unless the government decides to change its policy in this regard.
In summary, what we were looking for was a modern home that was well-built with all the conveniences for older people in a secure environment where there was easy access to all medical services. What we got was all that plus many extras we hadn’t realised were available at an affordable price.
Conclusion:
Retirement does not have to be a downhill slope to the Big Sleep; it can be full of fun and new beginnings, taking up new hobbies, learning a language, cultivating new friendships with like-minded people and so on. A Lifestyle Resort is an ideal venue for this forward-looking approach to life. We made a good decision to ‘up-sticks’ and move back across the country to Brisbane. We chose such a lovely place to live with so many really nice people in a secure environment – a really important consideration.
About the author: Having spent three years living in Australia in his youth, Alan returned to Australia in 1969 with his wife and young child. Holding a Bachelor of Engineering degree and a Doctor of Science Education degree, Alan has experience in flight simulations, Einsteinian physics, and inventing an ‘eye blink’ device that allows cerebral palsy patients to communicate. He even took a turn at acting, starring in a TV advert and landing supporting and lead roles in his local dramatic society plays. His short stories have been published in WA’s The Gingin Buzz for ten years, and his novel The Magic Hourglass is a work in progress. He and his wife have a lovely life in Brisbane and regularly visit their two children in Sydney’s West. You can read Alan’s full-length bio here.
From the Editor:
Do you live in a retirement resort/village? We'd love to hear from you in the comments below.
We were only able to create this content because of the financial support of SDC Rewards members. If you'd like to see more of this (and a lot fewer ads!), please consider supporting us and signing up for SDC Rewards today.
This article was written by member Alan G.
In order to write an article about ‘retirement living’, it seems that our own experience and the reasons for our choices would be advantageous for many people who, like us, are beginning to find stairs more ‘difficult’ to encounter and so on.
Our move from Western Australia:
There were a number of reasons for our desire to leave where we lived in WA: the progressive discomfort of climbing and descending the stairs of our two-storey kit home; the distance from hospitals and other medical services; and our desire to simply be somewhere ‘different’!
In WA, as in all other States, there were a number of ‘Lifestyle Resorts’ for the over fifties, but the only one that really drew our attention was called ‘El Caballo’. It had been a horse show tourist attraction for some years, but the owners had turned it into one of these resorts. Because we hadn’t seen any others at that time, it seemed rather an attractive proposition. I was coming up to late retirement, and it was essential (for us) that we could create a reasonable ‘quality of life’ by only receiving the pension. Luckily, we’d always been quite frugal – no booze, no ciggies and so on – so after we’d done the maths, El Caballo had seemed a good choice. Unfortunately, they seemed to be ‘dragging the chain’ regarding the development of the site, so we started to look elsewhere.
Do you live in a lifestyle resort? Image Credit: Shutterstock
We did a lot of ‘Google’ research and flew to Port Macquarie in March 2013, where we looked at some pre-manufactured ‘Norfolk Homes’ at a Lifestyle Village. We also visited the factory. We didn’t like the rocky nature of the coast, though, and the ‘skid’ houses seemed a bit like a caravan park. We flew to Ballina via Sydney in December 2013, but although the homes were nice enough, we didn’t like the ‘open plan’ nature of the housing at the Retirement and Lifestyle Village. The houses had no separating fences, and we were worried about dogs and so on. There happened to be a ‘Retirement Expo’ at a Club in the town, and a lot of companies were displaying their offers. We liked the look of ‘Ruby Gardens’ in Brisbane – part of the ‘Living Gems’ offering. We decided to drive from Ballina to Brisbane, where we found what we were looking for.
What we were looking for:
Living Gems Lifestyle Resorts, like many others, have no ‘exit fee’ or ‘deferred management fee’ (DMF). This meant that the home would be our own and become part of our estate. The land, however, was leased, and a monthly ‘rental’ fee included Council rates and maintenance fees. We avoided any lifestyle village that did not exclude exit fees or DMFs.
The homes at Ruby Gardens were all built on-site. A slab was laid for each home, but then floor joists were put on it, and the house was built on those. The house is then deemed to be ‘portable’, but it would be quite interesting to see how that could possibly be carried out!
Because of the ‘manufactured home’ category, I suppose Centrelink allows a certain amount of rent relief, which boosts the pension slightly. There are also other expense reliefs granted by the owners of Living Gems. Residents receive a regular rebate on the electricity cost, and the owners of Living Gems are also able to get a good deal on the cost per kWh.
We were also looking for designs of homes that catered for older people, such as eye-level ovens, kitchen drawers instead of cupboards and pantry drawers – in fact any design choice that minimises bending down or stretching up. We liked the idea of space and safety in showers – no hidden ‘steps’ that we’d encountered at some hotels and Airbnbs in our travels.
Ruby Gardens, once again in common with many resorts, has a good-sized swimming pool and hot spa, an excellent Clubhouse (for in-house concerts, bingo, meetings, indoor bowls, games and parties). The Clubhouse also has a games room (snooker, table tennis and darts) , a music room, a small cinema in which residents can show their own movies, a hair-dressing salon where a visiting hairdresser calls most days of the week and a comprehensive bar (run by the residents). There is also a well-equipped gym, full-sized bowling green, tennis court, croquet court, bocce (boule or petanque) ‘court’, barbeque area and a fully-equipped ‘men’s shed’. Of course, the resort is ‘gated’, and all residents have a non-contact electronic opener in addition to being provided with a code to open the gate. Emergency services vehicles also have their own code to enter the village. All homes have ‘panic buttons’ placed strategically to sound an external alarm in the event of an emergency (medical or otherwise). There are bus stops on either side of the road near the entrance gate and very quick access to many shops, dentists, doctors and so on. The train station for Brisbane and the Gold Coast is less than 10 minutes away by bus.
We’d done plenty of research into Retirement villages/Lifestyle Resorts and the homes at Ruby Gardens ‘ticked all the boxes’. The only downside is the fact that we cannot use the equity in the home to fund holidays, etc., since we are not able to obtain title to the land because we don’t own it. There is another resort group that is able to do just this – Ingenia – but the homes cost more, so the inconvenience of no home equity for land-lease homes may not be such a drawback.
Solar hot water and solar PV panels could be fitted to the roof, but the ‘feed-in’ tariff is only 5c/unit, and in our case, it is simply not worth it unless the government decides to change its policy in this regard.
In summary, what we were looking for was a modern home that was well-built with all the conveniences for older people in a secure environment where there was easy access to all medical services. What we got was all that plus many extras we hadn’t realised were available at an affordable price.
Conclusion:
Retirement does not have to be a downhill slope to the Big Sleep; it can be full of fun and new beginnings, taking up new hobbies, learning a language, cultivating new friendships with like-minded people and so on. A Lifestyle Resort is an ideal venue for this forward-looking approach to life. We made a good decision to ‘up-sticks’ and move back across the country to Brisbane. We chose such a lovely place to live with so many really nice people in a secure environment – a really important consideration.
About the author: Having spent three years living in Australia in his youth, Alan returned to Australia in 1969 with his wife and young child. Holding a Bachelor of Engineering degree and a Doctor of Science Education degree, Alan has experience in flight simulations, Einsteinian physics, and inventing an ‘eye blink’ device that allows cerebral palsy patients to communicate. He even took a turn at acting, starring in a TV advert and landing supporting and lead roles in his local dramatic society plays. His short stories have been published in WA’s The Gingin Buzz for ten years, and his novel The Magic Hourglass is a work in progress. He and his wife have a lovely life in Brisbane and regularly visit their two children in Sydney’s West. You can read Alan’s full-length bio here.
From the Editor:
Do you live in a retirement resort/village? We'd love to hear from you in the comments below.
We were only able to create this content because of the financial support of SDC Rewards members. If you'd like to see more of this (and a lot fewer ads!), please consider supporting us and signing up for SDC Rewards today.
Do you live in a lifestyle resort? Image Credit: Shutterstock
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