Awatere Village, Hamilton, among New Zealand Property Awards 2025 winners

Hamilton’s Awatere Village was among the winners of the Retirement Living and Aged Care Property Award at the 2025 Property Industry Awards.

A Waikato retirement village has won a national award, showing that your golden years don’t have to be a bore.

Hamilton’s Awatere Village was among the winners of the Retirement Living and Aged Care Property Award at the 2025 Property Industry Awards.

The village’s history dates back to the early 1900s when it was a homestead called Trevellyn.

Trevellyn was bought by Bill and Hilda Hume in 1906 and later by a Presbyterian support group in 1954, before being converted into a 12-bed rest home.

That was subsequently bought by Oceania Healthcare, which turned it into the 2.4-hectare Awatere Village.

Last year, Oceania completed its $93 million redevelopment, including a 91-bed care facility, 131 new independent living apartments, a cafe, cinema, gym and bar.

Other features include edible gardens, planted by residents, a bowling green, and walking tracks.

Village manager Kylie Hill said she was excited about the award win.

Talking about the redevelopment, Hill said Trevellyn never “lacked care, just amenities”.

“We’ve moved with the times and become modern.”

The redevelopment occurred during the pandemic, with plenty of challenges, so completing the upgrades and winning an award was a “significant achievement”.

“It’s a development catering right from retirement, hospital, to the end-of-life side.”

Resident Meryl, 87, who did not want to give her last name, has been living in the village’s Trevellyn building for 11 years.

Hamilton's Awatere Village manager Kylie Hill with resident Pat Stocks. Photo / Malisha Kumar

Meryl said a lot had changed since she first moved in, but she loved meeting more people and having more opportunities for activities.

“It’s been a big change and I was a bit apprehensive at first, going from a small place to a much bigger one.

“But I love it.

“This village has the convenience of everything close by. I needed that.”

She never saw herself living in a retirement village but, when her husband died, their home in Thames, where she lived for more than 50 years, was too big.

Now, she has “no regrets“ about moving to the village, a feeling shared by fellow resident Pat Stocks, 81.

Stocks became an Awatere resident five years ago and lives in one of the new independent units.

She lived in Hamilton with her family before her eyesight deteriorated.

“I couldn’t drive anymore, I was isolated. My son and I started looking at retirement villages, then Covid hit,” she said.

Between Covid waves, her family booked an appointment at Awatere, and Stocks hasn’t looked back since.

“[There are] bus stops just outside, and a parade of shops with a chemist, takeaways and dairies.”

Awatere Village residents planted these edible gardens themselves. Photo / Malisha Kumar

Stocks keeps herself busy by running the village bar - something that reminds her of home.

“I worked in a pub in England for 15 years when I was a police officer. I worked the bar for extra pocket money when my boys were little.”

Hill said the village was special.

“It’s about community and environment. This isn’t just a building, they’ve come to a village.”

The Property Industry Awards, now in their 35th year, are run by the Property Council New Zealand and celebrate achievements in property development, design, and investment.

Christchurch’s Burlington Village was named Best in Category in the Retirement Living and Aged Care Property Award.

Awatere Village, whose owner Oceania Healthcare sponsors the awards, received an excellence award, alongside Auckland’s Summerset St Johns. Woburn Masonic Care in Lower Hutt received a “merit” award.

Malisha Kumar is a multimedia journalist based in Hamilton. She joined the Waikato Herald in 2023 after working for Radio 1XX in Whakatāne.