Introduction

The first retirement villages were probably established in European countries for Roman soldiers who were no longer in peak fighting form and would therefore have swelled the ranks of the unemployed if they returned home. Much later the idea was resurrected in Europe in the form of housing schemes, often with connections to religion, that aimed to provide shelter and care for the aged. The concept spread to the US in the early 1900s, where their numbers grew along with the size of the older population and by 2001 there were around 2,000 retirement villages in the US, where they have become an extremely popular housing choice for later life. It is estimated that up to 12% of the older US population live in purpose-built retirement communities and such developments now account for roughly 11% of all new housing (Webster, 2002). The biggest development of this kind has more than 75,000 residents. The recent rapid growth of retirement villages has been driven by the increasing number of people in middle- to higher-income brackets who are tending to retire at an earlier age. It is now not uncommon for individuals and couples as young as 50 years to be purchasing retirement accommodation for immediate occupation. This, combined with increased life expectancies, is leading to a shortage of retirement accommodation in some countries. For example, in South Africa some retirement villages have 30-year waiting lists, which has led to annual price increases of up to 20%.

This chapter explores the history of retirement villages in several countries, including the US, Australia and New Zealand. It looks at how they have evolved to cater for the demographics of the baby boomer generation and the changing aspirations of older people by creating a variety of ‘niche’ markets.

Retirement villages in North America

Sun City in Central Florida was the first large-scale purpose-built retirement village in the US. It opened in 1960 and grew rapidly, selling 2,000 homes in the first year, and now has 40,000 residents. By 1999 there were an estimated 2,100 retirement villages in the US, housing about 750,000 people with an average age of 78. The majority of them are run by not-for-profit organisations but private developers are increasingly recognising the commercial potential of this market sector.