Although I am very much a fan-boy of retirement villages, there are some downsides that potential residents should consider before making the decision to buy.
Here are a few downsides for you to think about:
Loss of control
The residence contract and village rules mean that residents in retirement villages live in a very structured and highly-governed environment. These rules and regulations are well-intentioned and designed to ensure all residents have access to the peaceful enjoyment of their homes in the retirement village.
However, some people do not like a highly-regulated environment and would prefer to make their own decisions about what to plant in the garden and how long their visitors can stay. These people will find retirement villages frustrating and continually fight against management and the rules. Best they don’t move into a retirement village!
Personality differences
It is a fact of life that any environments involving groups of humans will almost certainly have personality clashes! This is true of retirement villages where some residents simply don’t get along and disputes may arise.
Retirement village residents need to be able to “play well with others” and be able to resolve issues in a friendly and courteous manner.
Cost
Villages that are highly-staffed and feature many facilities (pools, gyms, media rooms, auditoriums, craft rooms) will have higher village fees than sites with less staff and facilities. High-rise village fees are also more expensive because of the lifts (expensive to maintain, repair and replace) and cost of cleaning and painting the outside of the building.
In some cases, the cost of village fees may be higher than the annual living costs of other housing options. Furthermore, you may feel as though you don’t have control of the costs (which you don’t) and at the mercy of the village operator to increase fees.
Lack of moving options
If you have been living in the retirement village for a while and accrued the bulk of the exit fee, it is likely that when you leave, the residual payout is not enough to buy a new residence. This problem is particularly acute in villages where the exit fee is either paid upfront or fully accrued in the first 2-3 years of residence (called a front-loaded exit fee). This can leave residents stuck in a retirement village where they no longer want to be, with few options for exiting and relocating elsewhere.
This is why doing your research before buying into a retirement village is so important.