44 | RETIREMENT
The Special Requirements Property
When choosing a home for retirement – whether it is their main retirement home or a secondary property – the choice is not just about climate. Other considerations come into play. Buyers are increasingly savvy about their needs on retirement and the features that are desirable in a retirement property, so incorporating as many of these as possible into your project and then emphasising them in your marketing materials is likely to help you make sales. You know and the buyers know that the sort of property that might make an excellent holiday home may well not suffi ce as a permanent residence. Holiday homes will, typically, have fairly small rooms. The people will not spend a lot of time in them. They will usually have very little in the way of storage space as the users will turn up only with a couple of suitcases. The retired person will turn up with a furniture van full of 50 years’ worth of accumulated junk and needs somewhere to put it.
Holiday homes often do not make adequate provision for winter heating. The holiday home may also not offer
suffi cient space for guests or a garage in which to park your car or gardens in which to potter and sunbathe. If you’re trying to sell to the retirement market, do not try to fi t square pegs into round holes. Make sure that you select properties to offer to these buyers that are suited to
ROUND TABLE
their needs and show that you have thought about and understand their requirements.
Access
People are looking for easy access to and from airports near to where their family and friends live. There has been a great deal of research in the travel industry that suggests that if visitors face a journey of more than one-and-a- half hours at either end of their fl ight, 50% will not bother travelling. Whilst
“Buyers are increasingly savvy about their needs on retirement and the features that come into play”
family and friends may be a little more forgiving, the ideal retirement property should be within an hour’s travelling distance of an airport well serviced by international fl ights. It is a distinct advantage if it is serviced by low-cost airlines. Ideally, people would prefer not to have to fl y too far. If you want to go back to see your children or if they want to come to see you it is inconvenient. It is also costly and environmentally unfriendly. However,
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there is a growing group of adventurous retirees who choose to settle far away from home, in places such as Thailand, South America etc. If you are aiming at this market you will have to be very specifi c in your marketing materials and fi nd out a means of addressing this relatively small market cost-effectively. Of course, this doesn’t mean that nobody is going to buy a retirement property in the middle of nowhere. Some fi nd this prospect very appealing but it is not a large market and so if you’re wanting to sell lots of retirement property, choosing such a location is probably not the best strategy to adopt. Also important when it comes to the question of access is access by car. Good motorway links and the ability to drive from your old home to your new are much appreciated. Even though most visits are likely to be made by air there are times when taking the car is much more convenient.
Whilst thinking about cars, it is also helpful if your retirement property is not at the end of a steep and twisty road. Whilst people shouldn’t be limiting their options on retirement by what they will be able to do when they’re 90, there is no doubt that, as the years roll on, people become less and less comfortable about driving in diffi cult conditions – especially if that driving is on the wrong side of the road. A mountain road that is exhilarating in your 50s and 60s can make you a virtual prisoner in your 80s. Access by road should not be contained to access by car. Public transport – rail, bus or taxi – is also
much appreciated, if only so that the retired person does not become an unpaid taxi driver when visited by their children or grandchildren! A further type of access that is much appreciated but seldom thought about when selecting a property is access on foot. The ability to walk to a local shop, even if it only stocks the bare essentials, is highly valued and so, if you’re designing or building a retirement complex, should feature in your planning criteria.
Infrastructure
Are the local shops, bars, restaurants and services going to be open all year round? It is surprising how often people retire somewhere that they have visited many times during the summer months and are then shocked to fi nd that the whole place closes down over the winter months, leaving them feeling extremely isolated.
Is the complex where they are living near to a major shopping facility? Somewhere they can buy clothes and an electric drill rather than a beer or a loaf of bread.
When it comes to infrastructure, people have differing needs. Some may still need the availability of schools. Those of a religious persuasion will want a church/mosque/synagogue suited to their particular requirements. Large numbers look for sports facilities. If you’re wanting to sell into the retirement market, you will need to make sure that either your complex can provide as many as possible of these things or that as many as possible are
Leaving on a jet plane | Access from “home” to your buyer’s chosen location should ideally be an easy journey – direct fl ights, not too much driving
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