The Weekly SOURCE exclusively reported in January, the Not For Profit had chosen to transform its Sydney Williams retirement village in Doncaster East, 20km east of Melbourne's CBD, into a seniors’ rental village.
“We had more than 50 enquiries in the first week alone when the units went on the market in February, and all eight units were snapped up within 72 hours of us conducting the first tour,” Mark Eagleston, Calvary Strategic Operations and Performance – Retirement Living, said yesterday.
“The enquiry rate and response show a shift in the needs of senior Australians, many of whom are impacted by cost-of-living and other financial pressures.
“We had a range of different people come through, some who have never owned property and always rented, and some who didn’t quite have the lump sum needed to buy into a retirement village.
“The landscape of seniors’ living is changing, and we need to be offering choice. A rental option gives people who might be struggling or dealing with changes in their life circumstances choice, dignity and a level of flexibility so that they too can have a good quality of life.”
The village of eight, one- and two-bedroom units, is adjacent to Calvary Millward Residential Aged Care and represents the first fully dedicated seniors’ rental operation for Calvary Health Care across its 17 retirement village sites.
“The location of the site itself ticked the boxes of good quality accommodation and affordability in the Melbourne market, and the residents will enjoy the same services and benefits of a village, like social connections, low maintenance living, and security, but without the lump sum ingoing contribution,” Mark said, adding a rental village is now "definitely something we will be giving consideration to in markets where the DMF model is not meeting all consumer needs".
