Later life of luxury
Downsizers enjoy cinemas, spas, restaurants — and even chauffeur-driven vehicles,
WealThY baby boomers have never had it so good when it comes to finding a luxury retirement property. Downsizers can upscale to a grand estate like Wildernesse house in Sevenoaks, Kent, for example. here one-bed apartments, priced from £ 595,000, may come with a kitchen island and stone fireplace plus a grand on-site library.
or there’s the country house- style retirement communities like Great alne Park, Warwickshire, set in 78 acres, where a two-bed apartment costs £370,000 (or to rent from m £2,073 a month).
There are also smart t urban schemes like e riverstone Kensington or r riverstone Fulham, both h West london, which offer er a private cinema, restaurant ud and gardens designed by Chelsea Flower Show w winner andy Sturgeon.
high-end audley Villages es boast modern art, antiques, designer fabrics and fine- dining restaurants at its 20 sites.
audley Fairmile is an enclave of 74 two-bed homes priced from £764,950 which opened in Surrey last year. It has a swimming pool, sauna and guest suites.
If you’re a techie you’ll love auriens. Mood lighting and motorised kitchen cabinets for easy opening come as standard at Chelsea’s most expensive retirement village.
one- bed apartments cost £2,750,000, two-beds £3,995,000, plus other charges. But you do get a cinema, pool and spa, restaurant and a chauffeur-driven car.
Competition in this sector is fierce, so building tends to be concentrated in fashionable spots like the celebrity favourites of Cobham and Chertsey in Surrey, Cirencester and Stow- on-theWold in the Cotswolds, and Tunbridge Wells and Sevenoaks in rural Kent.
luxury living for rock musician Gary Summers, 71, and wife Cheryl, 53, is a large two-bed apartment in Pegasus’s ‘ super- sustainable’ Cobham Bowers scheme for the over-60s, in Surrey. They moved in over a year ago, swapping a fivebed 1,600 sq ft house in New Malden for a 1,150 sq ft home with a better layout.
‘It’s more open-plan so feels much bigger and it is so energy
efficient,’ says Gary. ‘ There’s plenty of room for my seven guitars and for entertaining friends, and Cheryl’s teenage daughter when she comes to stay.
‘We’re walking distance from Cobham high Street which has an Ivy restaurant, boutiques and everything we need.’
Gary, who has appeared at the 02 academy in Sheffield with former Whitesnake rockers Snakecharmer, performs with his Gary Summers Band most weekends.
‘There’s a contemporary feel here which means there are people in their mid-70s who have had interesting lives,’ he adds.
another bonus for Gary and Cheryl is there are no exit fees to pay if they move or sell.
one-and-two-bedroom apartments at Cobham Bowers cost from £480,000 and rentals from £2,900 a month.
Shiplake Meadows, set in parkland in henley- on-Thames, oxfordshire, is selling large twoand three-bedroom cottages and apartments with gardens and patios and two guest apartments.
‘our homes are focused on the quality of the living spaces,’ says David Conway, sales director at Galliard homes. ‘ So it’s not only about size but having lots of light and the largest balconies in this sector.’
luxury also means being on a fast rail link into london. Shiplake Meadows is 15 minutes from reading Station, which has a 21minute service into Paddington.