Residents set to move in
The first set of homes in a Te Anau retirement housing development are nearing completion, with residents set to move in.
Four of the Murchison Villas on Pop Andrew Drive are almost complete, with another six under construction as part of stage one of the development.
The final 13 homes in stage two were about to go on the market.
Fiordland Retirement Housing Trust chairman Brian McCandless said the first residents were expected in March.
‘‘This has been a truly collaborative project and it will be exciting to see them finally occupied.’’
Southland district councillor and trust member Ebel Kremer said the retirement housing development provided affordable living options for retirees in Te Anau who were looking to downsize.
There were still elderly residents who were not ready to go into retirement homes but looking for something smaller, Kremer said.
Many of the smaller homes available in the town were older cribs that did not have good insulation and were not ideal for the elderly, he said. The homes the trust had built were well insulated, affordable and comfortable, Kremer said. They had a price tag of about $350,000.
The development had an edge over other providers of retirement village housing because buyers would own their property 100 per cent freehold, with a body corporate maintaining the site on behalf of the trust.
North-facing with mountain views and adjacent to the Fiordland Medical Centre, the land originally earmarked for retirement housing 20 years ago was gifted by the Southland District Council to the trust for $1.
Community Trust South provided a substantial loan to enable construction of the first 10 villas to start a year ago. Most villas had been sold to locals and now the trust was opening up sales to the wider Southland community.
Southland Grey Power president Peter Kennett said smaller housing met the needs of some people living in the Southland community. ‘‘Older people like to live independently as much as they can.’’
For those looking to buy in the Te Anau development, the criteria set up states residents must be 60 years old or older and prohibits using the property as a holiday home.
It can be rented out, but only to people of that age group.