LITTLE Luxuries
You don’t have to downgrade in retirement, says Francesca Wickers
GoNE are the days when pensioner pads meant beige paint, drab furniture and a onestyle-fits-all attitude to décor. Retirement living is getting a facelift.
‘We want people to walk into one of our apartments and be shocked that it’s a retirement home,’ says Shane Paull, managing director for McCarthy & Stone.
For its new Shore House development — a cluster of 22 luxury, beachside flats on the Jurassic Coast in Dorset — the company worked with an interior designer, who intro- duced decking, roomy master bedrooms with silk bedspreads and slate-tiled bathrooms.
‘The term retirement home does not have the same meaning as it did 20 years ago,’ says Shane, who has noticed a steady rise in demand for high-end properties. ‘There’s a misconception that people move into retirement homes to see out their dwindling final years, but that isn’t the case. They move to live the rest of their lives.’
Those retiring today most likely grew up in the 50s and 60s — a time of social and technological revolution, and have seen the influx of wireless internet, flat- screen TVs, power showers and touchscreen ovens. Who would want to give up these mod-cons when they decamp to a retirement home?
‘Downsizing shouldn’t necessarily mean downgrading,’ says Francine Watson, of Knight Frank estate agents. ‘ The needs of retirees are changing.’
The definition of high end is broad, but luxury retirement living means tailoring accommodation to suit individuals’ needs.
Take Wiltshire Leisure Village, for example: a collection of 25 bespoke, New England- style lodges, built on a golfing estate. Buyers choose a home, lay down their specifications and the house is built to their requirements.
For an extra sprinkle of glamour, the development was the creation of actress and former Bond girl Jennifer Shah, who bought the estate in 2001 with her husband, newspaper magnate Eddy Shah. Home ownership comes with membership to the Country Club, with its driving range and pool.
Brunel Crescent, a community of 15 luxury apartments a few miles from Bath, has also spared no expense, offering underfloor heating, Corian kitchen worktops and wet rooms.
‘There are no shower curtains or pull cords here,’ says Francine, who is managing the sales for the development. ‘It’s tastefully done.’ Many residences are slick on the outside, too. Property developer Beechcroft, which has elegant houses and converted buildings in its portfolio, found that many of its affluent buyers wanted to downsize because they found their own gardens too difficult to maintain.
Its developments, such as Frenchlands Gate in Surrey, provide an estate manager to keep up the weeding and watering. Several of their properties have won awards for their landscaped gardens.
High-end retirement needn’t be a pipe dream. While a penthouse apartment at Brunel Crescent will set you back £895,000, its twobedroom flats start at £399,000. Four-bedroom homes with a verandah at Wiltshire Leisure Village start at £405,000, and Shore House apartments cost from £340,000.