Real Estate Investor Magazine South Africa Real Estate Investor Magazine - Dec/Jan 2018 | Page 36

RETIREMENT
The Changing Face
of South Africa’s
Retirement Sector
BY TRACY BARTLETT
I
t’s no secret that South Africans are increasingly ill-pre-
pared for retirement, with inflation steadily eroding their
nest eggs while it is becoming more and more difficult to
save money at all. However, even retirees who have managed
to keep their financial ducks in a row are now faced with
challenges, ranging from the lack of suitable and affordable
retirement accommodation available, to grappling with the
fine print of various ownership models to ensure they choose
one that best suits their financial needs and goals.
As unappealing as the concept was to many, until quite
recently, the traditional old age home was the main option
available to retirees who typically made the move after the
age of 65 or when they were no longer able to care for them-
selves and availability was seldom a problem.
Lew Geffen, Chairman of Lew Geffen Sotheby’s inter-
national Realty says: “Nowadays the retirement landscape is
very different and modern retirement villages are a far cry
from the single-room-with-three-square-meals concept.
“In addition to the standard amenities such as health and
frail care, retirees also expect lifestyle facilities and modern,
low maintenance lock-up-and-go units that afford them
more freedom to enjoy their golden years.
“Based on the precept of offering a quality lifestyle in a se-
cure community for mature people who are still active, many
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DECEMBER 2017/JANUARY 2018 SA Real Estate Investor Magazine
now accept residents from the age of 55 as a growing number
of empty-nesters no longer want the responsibility of large
homes and prefer to move just once rather than downsize
and move again a couple of years later.”
Room to grow
However, despite the spate of development in recent years,
there is a shortage of retirement property with developers
struggling to keep up with demand.
“The retirement sector of the market was overlooked and
undeveloped for many years,” says Geffen, “and although
developers have recognised the yawning gap in the market,
their challenge is to acquire suitable large tracts of increas-
ingly scarce land at a reasonable price to ensure the units will
not be priced above the general housing market in the area.”
He adds that Stats SA’s June report revealed that in South
Africa, approximately 8,1% (4.6 million) of the population is
60 years of age or older and, following the global trend, this is
expected to rise exponentially as the baby boomer generation
(those born between 1946 and 1964) are remaining healthy
and active, thus living longer.
However, it’s not only the accommodation options that
have changed and perhaps one of the most important de-
cisions that retirees now have to make is the type of sale