Join the silver city slickers!
Theatres, cafe culture and shopping on the doorstep are tempting retirees back to town
The pandemic may have seen an exodus of young people from major towns and cities, but older people have been moving in the opposite direction. They are the generation who want to shop in shops and enjoy live entertainment, and not just online offerings from Netflix and Amazon. They visit theatres, meet friends in restaurants, and are happy on the high Street.
No wonder all this has prompted a retirement building boom within striking distance of Britain’s most vibrant towns.
A survey has shown the top ten retirement hotspots are cities and towns, not all of them in the South east.
Adlington Retirement Living has built three schemes around Stockport (at seven on the list) in Greater Manchester. They are The Chimes in Cheadle, The Folds in Romiley, and The Woodlands in heaton Mersey, with one-bed flats from £139,950.
‘We look for locations that offer our homeowners the benefits of being close to a major city but with beautiful surroundings and a sense of peace and quiet,’ says Dr ed Gladman, managing director of Adlington Retirement Living.
For former schoolteachers Joan and Bill Timm the location was a winner when choosing their three-bedroom apartment at The Chimes in Cheadle: ‘The high Street is right there,’ says Joan, 86, ‘with shops just one minute away.
‘The transport links are excellent — we’ve got a bus route to Altrincham, straight into the centre of Stockport and right through into Manchester Piccadilly. There are lovely parks and woodland too. We are just three minutes from countryside and three miles from Stockport.’
They are also close to Manchester Airport, which is handy when taking a plane to visit their three children who are living in Australia, New York and France.
The Great British Retirement Index collated a number of factors when deciding on the top retirement destinations in Britain, including the number of parks, cafes, fitness centres and average saving when downsizing in the area.
The South West’s maritime port of Plymouth came out top with the highest number of parks. The seaside city of Brighton and hove in east Sussex came second with 12 cafes for every 100,000 people and an average downsize saving of £222,052. Cardiff, edinburgh and Nottingham scored highly too, with Glasgow, Stockport, Sheffield, Liverpool and Bristol also in the mix.
McCarthy & Stone, the nation’s largest retirement housebuilder, has adopted a strategy of building near town centres and transport links.
‘We are pleased to have existing developments in many of the cities highlighted in this survey, from Century Court in Nottingham to Llys Isan in Cardiff,’ says CeO John Tonkiss. ‘We also have multiple developments under construction such as Flora Grange in Sheffield.’
Bristol has long seduced retirees to its fashionable suburbs, such as Failand, where Audley Redwood sits in 15 acres of landscaped parkland with one-bedroom apartments priced from £375,000.
Retired managing director Ray Manning, 73, moved into a two-bedroom apartment with his wife Maureen, just a couple of months ago.
ORIGINALLY from Central London, they moved to be closer to their grandchildren. ‘Bristol is like London without the hassle,’ says Ray. ‘It’s so vibrant; you can walk along the waterfront, you are spoilt for choice with restaurants and entertainment.
‘We have a great mix of town and country on our doorstep. There’s good shopping and we are connected to other lovely areas like Wells and Clifton. And Bristol Airport is nearby too.’
The cost of living is lower, too. ‘We paid £40 for a ticket to see Dreamgirls at the Bristol hippodrome — it would have cost £85 or £90 in the West end.
‘And I reckon it costs us just £150 a month more to live here at Audley Redwood with all of the wonderful facilities on site than it cost to run our family home.’
Lifestory’s award-winning development The Vincent is in the popular Bristol enclave of Redland.
here a scheme of 64 one-, two- and threebedroom apartments have been built next to a grand, restored 19th-century house. Prices start from £375,000 and rent starts from £2,220 pcm.
And in Fishponds, Churchill Retirement Living has 41 apartments at New Pooles Lodge, priced from £248,950.
Churchill also has developments in Peacehaven, just outside Brighton, and one under construction in Nottingham (voted fifth best retirement area in the survey). They are also planning two more developments on the outskirts of Stockport.