Buying your retirement property requires more research and planning than any other property purchase you make throughout your entire life.
Early on, as a young couple, you will make choices based on the best value you can get for your sometimes-limited means.ÂÂ You will sacrifice position and convenience for size, perhaps – knowing that children are likely to be on the way, and they will need lots of living space and a garden.ÂÂ Later, as education becomes an issue, you will choose a suburb that offers the best schools you can afford within a suitable distance.
These decisions are made with the comforting thought that there will be a few more homes in your future, where you can refine your priorities as time passes, and choose different properties in different places to see how well they suit you.
But when it gets to deciding on a retirement property, the choice has to take every possible requirement into consideration.ÂÂ Moving into a retirement village is an emotional step that doesn’t really allow for mistakes. Unlike your early years, you are no longer so resilient to change and upheaval.
The highest priorities when considering retirement accommodation are:ÂÂ comfort and familiarity; convenience to all services, and value for money. All the factors, in essence, covered by the three watchwords – price, quality and location. In retirement you do not want to be making compromises that later on down the road could become a burden.
These are all the considerations that have been top of mind at Cape Retirement Lifestyles (CRL) a division of Communicare, housing specialists for over 80 years. CRL has five retirement villages throughout the Cape Peninsula, offering a wide range of solutions to retired people and their specific needs.
For those of you who have lived their earlier lives in the Southern Suburbs, CRL has two charming retirement villages in positions that are convenient to all the amenities you have become used to in the ‘bringing up family’ years. Trianon and the Rathfelder are on different sides of Main Road in Diep River. They both have a broad choice of accommodation in beautifully maintained buildings and leafy surroundings.
In the City Bowl is Berghof, that has elegant apartments of varying sizes right at the foot of Table Mountain, with views up into its craggy slopes and in close proximity to established leisure landmarks such as Government Avenue in the Company Gardens, famous De Waal Park, and the cosmopolitan shopping experience of the Gardens Centre.
Then there is Thornton Placein the quiet suburb that borders Pinelands, a corner of the Peninsula with its very own neighbourhood atmosphere and sense of establishment.
To the north, in rural Durbanville, near the centre of the town with all the conveniences, is Rosehaven Gardens – the natural retirement destination for those who love this historic settlement at the gateway to the winelands.
Each development has its own charm and attraction and each offers all the conveniences that you have become used to, plus the way of life that you have established over the decades.
Each of the units is bought as a life right holding, allowing security of tenure for you and your spouse’s lifetime. Each also affords you the opportunity to budget your monthly living expenses with confidence.
One of the major advantages of life in a CRL village is the Healthcare Centre in Diep River, available to the residents of all five villages for a time when they might need full time care.ÂÂ The Centre, that offers professional care for those that need it and a specialistÂÂ section where peopleliving with Dementia are cared for, is independently run, and its funding does not rely on village levies – so monthly living costs for owners of life right apartments is reduced.
After a quarter of a century in retirement accommodation and care, Cape Retirement Lifestyles(CRL) is who you will choose to give you the peace of mind you need when you settle into your retirement years.