Developer Tim Wright is adamant he is not a retirement village operator or aged care provider.
He is targeting the middle to upper affluent market (such as 60+) with freehold, quality facility and community, plus utilise the power of the “invest retire” financial model.
His three-bedroom, two-bathroom with two car garage homes are SEPP Seniors / disabled compliant and SunLife's Summerfield Country Estate is an over 55s independent living community with homes each on their own small parcel of freehold land.
Summerfield Country Estate is in the heritage town of Braidwood in NSW's Southern Tablelands, 91km east of Canberra. The site has 56 homes and the last one is for sale for $900,000 (the first was $500,000+ in 2018).
Tim is about to launch SunLife Warwick, a rural town, 73km south of Toowoomba, in southeast Queensland, with SunLife Hervey Bay, to follow. There are also plans for SunLife Cessnock, a city in NSW's Hunter Valley.
Tim lists six reasons why SunLife works:
- Younger over 50s generally still desire to own their home outright. They do not want entry or exit fees. They do not want lease or licence. They want to be able to sell their home at their discretion and keep the capital growth.
- Over 50s want to have fun and enjoy life, with a focus on health and wellness. They want the ‘onsite’ community facilities and to be with likeminded people.
- No-one knows at what age they may need ‘high care’, and they will often need to maximise the value of their home asset for such an occurrence, and to get the best care possible.
- Homeowners don’t want to be ‘packed in’ like sardines on land they don’t even own.
- Homeowners may want to use their asset to borrow on, which is basically impossible in the lease license scenario of many retirement villages.
- Homeowners may want to buy now as an investment property, rent it out, and be able to live in later. There is strong demand for seniors’ rentals at SunLife Summerfield.
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