Following the popularity of the first stage of Oaktree Retirement Village at Kanwal, the second stage is now being released and expected to be ready within 12 months.
Director of Oak Tree Group, Mark Bindon, says the first stage has just about sold out and already about 20 villas are occupied.
“That’s happened fairly quickly,” he said.
“So, we’re building the rest of the village in one movement instead of two stages, which is quite unusual, but it reflects the demand in the area.
“The balance of the project will be completed over the course of the next 12 months.
“We’re doing all the civil works, the rest of the internal roads, all the infrastructure and then the villas will follow, and we expect that in another 12 months the villas will be sold out,” Bindon said.
When completed, the village will comprise 58 single storey self care homes with 14 two bedroom models and 44 three bedroom designs.
“We’re quite lucky that our entire property is orientated to the north so our homes are going to continue to have great natural light filtering through them throughout the day,” Bindon said.
National Manager New Project, Melissa Luck, said a key drawcard was that even though new residents might be downsizing their home they were actually upsizing in the recreational facilities available to them at the village.
The Kanwal village has a community centre with a full kitchen, library, arts and craft room, activities and games room, gym, a bowling green, swimming pool and a salon for the visiting hairdresser.
“We’ve also got over three hectares of land here, with the village at the front and, in keeping with the rural atmosphere of the neighbourhood, at the back there’s a lovely reserve which will have walking paths,” Luck said.
“Also, throughout the village we’ve created lovely little breakout grassy spaces with tables.
“Residents have a strong involvement in the way the village operates, we’re a very family oriented operator and welcome family and friends to visit.
“We’ve gone through a very distressing time this year and people have been feeling very isolated, so the benefit of being here in a community is that when you can’t be with your loved ones you’ve got a support network within the village community, we’ve seen that really come together in all of our villages this year.
“Once school holidays are on, the grandkids can still be staying with grandma and granddad over the holidays and they can use the swimming pool and the other recreational facilities,” Luck said.
Sue Murray