News location:

Canberra Today 14°/16° | Friday, March 29, 2024 | Digital Edition | Crossword & Sudoku

Carter / Old problem with a future

WE’VE all heard the “location, location, location” catchcry from real estate agents, but location is essential in the housing considerations of people over 65.

Catherine Carter.
Catherine Carter.
This group needs greater access to transport and services, has more time for leisure and community activities, and has less need for large houses.

And yet, despite large segments of Canberra’s ageing population wanting to stay in the communities in which they’ve happily lived for decades, we are increasingly seeing people 65 and over pushed to developments on the urban fringes with less developed support infrastructure that doesn’t fit their needs.

Retirement villages, thoughtfully located in existing suburbs, offer older Canberrans the opportunity to stay in their own community, while vacating larger homes to enable demand to better match supply.

Canberra has about 30 retirement villages, but the pipeline of development will not meet the expected future demand without the ACT government adjusting its land release program.

While retirement villages play an important role, many Canberrans still prefer independent living.

As the conversation around raising the retirement age continues, in a city of highly-educated, white-collar workers, many over 65s will be keen to remain in employment for longer.

Apartment living in the city is likely to increasingly appeal to semi-retirees wanting access to lifestyle, part-time employment and services in a more compact, connected community than when they had a house in the suburbs.

Our challenge is to create communities where older people want to be by considering the over 65s in our master planning.

 

Who can be trusted?

In a world of spin and confusion, there’s never been a more important time to support independent journalism in Canberra.

If you trust our work online and want to enforce the power of independent voices, I invite you to make a small contribution.

Every dollar of support is invested back into our journalism to help keep citynews.com.au strong and free.

Become a supporter

Thank you,

Ian Meikle, editor

Catherine Carter

Catherine Carter

Share this

One Response to Carter / Old problem with a future

Chris says: 24 July 2014 at 11:43 am

The government’s master plans which encourage mostly one-bedroom and studio apartments in the inner suburbs (e.g. replacements for BAC and Northbourne flats, Parkes3 etc) won’t suit retirees who have enough difficulty sizing down to two bedrooms.

Reply

Leave a Reply

Related Posts

Opinion

No mystery in Gaza, we all know whodunnit

"All too often lately I’ve been left staring into the darkness and worrying about the real murders taking place in the Ukraine and the Gaza Strip," writes The Gadfly columnist ROBERT MACKLIN. 

Follow us on Instagram @canberracitynews