Blissful benef its
From theatre tickets to cut-price holidays, retirement villages are offering residents perks galore
After they’ve been seduced by refundable deposits, removals discounts, try-before-you-buy packages and champagne tours of shiny showhomes, what else can retirees expect on moving in to their retirement apartment?
An awful lot, if you choose your home wisely. With more retirement operators coming into the market, competition is hotting up to provide benefits to homeowners.
We’re not talking about a free shuttle service to the shops, coffee mornings and weekly quizzes, but cut-price holidays, theatre tickets and, even, furniture.
Churchill retirement Living, which has 170 developments, offers its homeowners discounts on a variety of products as part of its Owner rewards scheme.
It has partnered holiday companies such as P&O Cruises and Away resorts and also teamed up with a ticket agency, and a furniture, clothing and mobility scooter company, which all offer discounts of 10 per cent or more.
Churchill CEO Spencer McCarthy says: ‘We provide a new lifestyle as well as a new home for our owners, so they can make the most of their retirement, and our reward Partners scheme is a great example of this in action.
‘the holiday and cruise partnerships are probably the most eyecatching, but the smaller things like clothing and florist deals are just as popular.’
Homeowners at Audley Villages’ 16 developments are offered a range of discounts, including 35 per cent off a DNA genealogy service, 15 per cent off a Speyside whisky, and £20 off tablets and mobile phones.
Charlotte Glanville, 70, has been making the most of her free membership of the Joy Club, an online activities club for retirees. Audley gives all its homeowners 12-months free membership through which they access a wide range of classes, talks, recitals and fitness sessions.
Mrs Glanville, who moved into a three-bedroom cottage at Audley Stanbridge earls, near romsey in Hampshire with her cockapoo Peggy, almost two years ago, has even initiated her own online Interesting Lives series for the club. ‘When I got talking to my neighbours, I was struck by the varied and interesting stories many of them have to tell,’ she said. ‘It gave me the idea of sharing these stories, so that we could get to know each other.’
So far, speakers have included a scientist who spoke about working with the medical commission of the International Olympic Committee on anti-drug doping; a woman who told of her family fleeing from east to West Germany after the war; and a retired colonel who was given 24-hours notice to run Durham Prison during a prison officer’s strike in the 1970s.