St Andrews retirement village apartments will soon go on the market

The new St Andrews retirement village apartments will go on sale in August this year.

It will join an increasing number of retirement villages as the city’s population grows and ages.

The $30 million Bupa development will have one-bedroom and two-bedroom apartments that will be sold for $350,000-$400,000 each.

Within the village there will be 40 care home beds, 63 village apartments, a care unit, and extra activity areas like communal lounges, a cinema, and  library.

Bupa’s director of development and property Richard Stephenson said the development will make better use of land in Hamilton. “The Bupa development will provide options to relocate within the local community, freeing up existing housing stock and will provide options for younger people growing up in the area.”

The care home company Bupa, which already has one retirement village in the Waikato, chose the site because it was vacant, had views over the golf course and was part of a well established neighbourhood.

Earlier plans to build a retirement village on the St Andrews golf course came to nothing after the council decided to protect the amount of green land in Hamilton.

Hamilton’s population grew rapidly between 2006 and 2013, from 129,249 to 141,612. The proportion of residents aged over 65 also grew. The 2013 Statistics New Zealand census showed that 11.4 percent of people were over the age of 65, whereas in 2006 there was 10.1 percent.

St Andrews resident Rex Burt, 85, said: “I think it [the retirement village] is all right in this area. I think they need it, because they don’t have anything like this in the area.”

His wife, Maralie Burt said they were not ready to move out of their home, but knew of many people who were happy living in a retirement village.

The retirement village is expected to be completed by the end of this year.