As New Zealand heads to the polls, retirees are being encouraged to think well beyond the next three years when making one of the biggest decisions of their lives
This content was prepared by The Sanderson Group and is being published by The New Zealand Herald as Advertorial.
New Zealanders will head to the polls on November 7, with political parties laying out their plans for the country’s future.
But for thousands of older New Zealanders considering a retirement village, the timeframe they need to think about is considerably longer.
Someone moving into a village at 70 could potentially call it home for the next 20 years or more. Governments will come and go, economic cycles will turn and their own needs may change considerably.
For Nathan Sanderson of The Sanderson Group, that’s why one question prospective residents should ask isn’t simply where do I want to live?
It’s who am I choosing to live with?
“Governments work in three-year cycles. We can’t,” says Sanderson. “When you’re creating a community people may call home for the next 20 or 30 years, you have to think much further ahead.”
Thinking long-term
Unlike many large national retirement village operators, Sanderson Group remains privately owned.
Its villages at Tamahere, Matamata and Pukekohe have each been developed as individual communities rather than following a national template. A fourth Country Club is now planned for Matakana.
Sanderson believes prospective residents should look beyond homes and facilities and understand who owns a village and what their long-term intentions are.
“I’d be asking: Who owns this village? Who actually makes the decisions? What’s their track record? What are they promising for the future? And are they going to be around to deliver it?”
Tamahere Country Club perhaps provides the clearest example.
What began as a vision for a different style of retirement living has matured into an established community with homes, gardens, social facilities and, most recently, the new Tamahere Care Centre.
When needs change
Care isn’t necessarily top of mind when someone first considers retirement living. But knowing it is available can become enormously important later – for residents and their families.
Not every retirement village offers care, and providing it represents a significant long-term commitment by an operator.
Importantly, it can also mean residents don’t have to leave the community, friendships and familiar surroundings they’ve built around them simply because their care needs change.
“Building the houses is only the beginning,” says Sanderson. “We’re creating communities for people for the long term, and that means thinking about what they might need at every stage.”
That same philosophy is now influencing plans for Matakana Country Club, proposed for a 78-hectare peninsula integrated with a working farm.
Still in the planning phase, the village will be designed specifically for its Matakana setting rather than replicating another Sanderson village.
As New Zealand debates what the country might look like after the next election, families considering retirement living face a much more personal long-term decision.
Because when you’re choosing somewhere that could be home for the next 20 years, three-year thinking simply isn’t long enough.
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