Understanding senior community residents for better construction of retirement villages

Housing for growing aging population has become a vital issue across Australia. A retirement village is regarded as a supportive home choice for senior people in response to the life transitions. However, only a small proportion of the Australian senior people choose to live in the retirement villages. Therefore, this study aims to identify the barriers against the senior community residents moving to the villages through a case study in Geelong. The empirical findings indicate that the two main categories of barriers are related to the living environment changes and economic pressure. Accordingly, the corresponding recommendations are proposed to overcome the barriers. While addressing the local senior housing issue, this study provides a direction for future research into the affordable and suitable construction of retirement village from a general perspective.