[+] No Borders: How Seniors Living Overhaul is Reshaping Cities

Retirement living and aged care has undertaken a major rebrand in recent years, moving from annexed villages in the outer suburbs into urban shoptop vertical housing and integrated campus-style communities. This year, BaptistCare launched a masterplan for its Macquarie Park site , bringing in student accommodation, build-to-rent stock as well as aged care and retirement living. Meanwhile, UrbanLife’s Footscray retirement development is aiming to revitalise a staple of the area, the Little Saigon markets, as operators and developers look at how they can better integrate their projects with community and health and wellbeing goals. Dr Marissa Lindquist, architect and senior lecturer at Queensland University of Technology (QUT) of the school of Architecture and Built Environment is leading a five-year federally funded project that explores opportunities to integrate education with retirement and aged-care communities. “The aim and opportunity is to look at attitudinal change between seniors and youth, and also the health and wellness benefits of having that co-location, with opportunities for co-care, co-learning and even co-fitness,” Lindquist says. “It’s important because of the skills shortage [in aged care] and models like this can help in providing educational pathways for young people.” ▲ The University of Canberra is looking for an aged-care partner for its Health and Wellbeing Neighbourhood as it seeks to bridge the gap between care and education. The need for change has led to partnerships such as the University of Canberra’s UC Health and Wellness Neighbourhood, which has identified a 3ha parcel of land for a residential aged-care facility as it aims to provide support for older people on campus. The UC and QUT projects are on the cutting edge of a fast-emerging trend within the sector, where aged care and retirement living are being better integrated with local communities, for the benefit of both. “It’s an emerging concept within Australia where there is a desire to look at intergenerational issues from an architectural and a government perspective,” Lindquist says. “Projects like this already exist in the US, Europe and Asia, so it is an emerging space because of the opportunities, not just for seniors and youth, but more broadly from society, so we can support each other as a community.” Age-in-place The aim of many of these upcoming projects is to support ‘ageing-in-place’. In 2021, according to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, 82 per cent of people aged 70-74 were homeowners and it is these homeowners, who have equity in their assets, who are most likely to want to age in place—if not directly in their home then at the least in their own suburb and community. “But ageing in place isn’t just for seniors now,” Lindqvuist says. “It means to have meaningful participation within communities long term and to have a life full of purposeful engagement, to have a healthy lifestyle and be part of a community.” For many decades, retirement living and aged care has been annexed into quiet suburbs. “[In architecture] we talk about how we’ve developed silos, for education, for ageing, but we’re in a new context now and we need to remove those silos so there is opportunity for connection and the strengthening of existing connections. “One example is that youth, through that proximity with seniors, might be able to better understand their lives going forward, to develop skills around ageing in place and opportunities for training pathways.” ▲ According to the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission the sector, which loses 65,000 workers every year, has a 35,000-worker annual shortfall as a result. So far, Lindquivst says, there has been interest and feedback from the industry supporting the model, and from a design, planning and architectural standpoint, there are systems already existing to encourage integration. “There are exemplars already in practice, such as universal design, which makes issues relevant to seniors, like accessibility, universal,” she says. “Liveable cities that are age-friendly encourage accessibility and overcome those risks and impediments.” Uniting NSW and ACT director of Property and Housing Simon Furness told The Urban Developer that design principles were already being developed by the sector to improve quality of life and community integration. “We know from good design practices, reinforced by evidence-based research of ‘blue zones’, that people that live in vibrant, intimate and connected communities live longer,” he says. “As you age your zone of physical activity can diminish as you become less mobile. [But] your psychological wellbeing depends on maintaining connections and interacting with others.” ▲ Uniting’s Westmead development has an early learning centre and intergenerational program to encourage learning through shared activities. This has also helped the move towards vertical living in the retirement and aged-care space. “New retirement living developments also need to respond to a growing trend for higher-density development,” Furness says. “Not all retirees are seeking sea-change or tree-change; many want to remain in familiar suburban communities and some choose to move into more urbanised areas. “Many of Uniting’s future developments will be in areas where older Australians can age in vibrant, densely populated areas where they can stay connected and active.” This had led to the development of sites such as Uniting Westmead, which brings together aged care, retirement living, a seniors’ gym as well as an early learning centre. “This contemporary style of integrated development has been very well received with the independent living residents making new friends with the early learning children,” he says. On the ground Uniting has $4 billion of new developments in the pipeline during the next 10 years and the aim of them all will be better integration to allow residents to age in place, Furness says. “This means retirement living is either integrated with, or adjacent to, residential aged care, provide assisted living services to support the various needs of each resident to age in place and provide appropriate facilities such as seniors gym and Men’s Shed,” he says. ▲ Aura’s Kingsford Terrace Corinda development is part of a new wave of modernising projects to supply the more than 3.9 million retirees in Australia. Managing director of luxury retirement developer Aura Holdings Sean Graham says that partnering with operations such as golf and bowls clubs to centre communities around activities is already moving Aura developments away from the ‘siloed’ model of retirement villages. “We want people to stay within their current community and there’s not always age-appropriate accommodation for that, which is why we like infill sites,” he said. “We will always come in as a strong partner, for those club-affiliated developments but also our own. “For instance, we partner with a group that provides an avenue for people with disabilities to get into the community and work. “We will continue to develop onsite a certain amount of activation, with storefronts and complementary offerings whether that is allied health, retail or food and beverage but it’s got to be something that will complement the village and be sustainable—anything that can help foster a community, that’s what we like. “The community in the village is so important, that’s why people are attracted. They can come in and meet new people but having that connection to the broader local community is really important as well.” Organic changes While major changes are prompting a rethink of retirement living and the integration of education and other services within the development, it will be an organic change, Graham says. “It’s a very European model but at the moment there is still a lot of demand and lack of supply for that current age group, retirement age group, moving in their 70s and 80s, it doesn’t need to be structured to co-living level yet,” he says. “What will happen is that those services that are provided will organically become more in demand onsite. “People are choosing their own packages, and might require more assistance within villages. That will continue and you will have more and more services, and then developers will look to integrate them more closely. “Until people think about what this could actually look like, then it doesn’t happen. “The first time people put up a vertical retirement village, some were sure it wouldn’t work. Now we’re moving towards that [integrated model] but we’re not there yet.” ▲ The masterplan for Uniting’s Waverley development aims to improve streetscapes, public areas, amenity and links to the surrounding neighbourhood. There are also practical challenges to such top-level integration, especially for smaller players. “Given the demand that we see and because we are a young operator, we’ll continue to grow and build our balance sheet. When you’re a big operator, you need to adjust accordingly. You have to be on the front foot but to be able to have the capital to make those decisions you need some runs on the board.” Lindquist says that despite the challenges, developers have been open to the idea. “It’s been quite a rewarding thing to present this idea and have this reception from across the board. There’s some real interest in this space from a developer as well as an education perspective. “The project started when Covid did and since then I think we’ve become more of a caring society and concerned about health and wellbeing and how people stay connected.” The urgent undersupply of retirement and aged-care stock is getting to critical levels, as is the skills shortage in the industry, which means the time is ripe for the sector to move away from its old models. “There is a critical need to increase the supply of seniors housing in NSW to meet the substantial unmet demand for this housing option,” says Uniting’s Furness. “Retirement villages can relieve pressure on the current housing crisis and the overburdened health system and ensure higher quality of life for older Australians. “Any initiative by the government to increase the supply of seniors housing and support organisations like Uniting to deliver high-quality retirement living developments is welcome.” You are currently experiencing The Urban Developer Plus (TUD+), our premium membership for property professionals. 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[+] No Borders: How Seniors Living Overhaul is Reshaping Cities

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