Freedom to Live Life to the Full

At the heart of Freedom Villages is a mission to provide lifestyle living for less to the active baby boomer generation seeking financial freedom and a quality home that will adapt to their changing needs.

The first $46 million Freedom Villages model community has launched in the Papamoa suburb of Tauranga. Spokesperson Juliette Yarrell says the Freedom team, including award winning house designers Ponting Fitzgerald, has been driven by the growing need of the 55+ market for attractive, yet affordable, access to purpose-designed, resort-style communities.

Part of the vision was to achieve Lifemark approval for the largest Freedom Villages home, called The Bay. All homes are built for easy conversion and configuration to comply with Lifemark accredited mobility standards should they be required.
“We felt it was crucial to future-proof homes for our residents who will be able to feel confident that what they’re buying will serve their changing needs,” explains Ms Yarrell. “The concepts by well-known house designer David Ponting include rails in wet rooms so that residents can avoid expensive conversions down the track.”

Prices start from $219,000 for a 1.5-bedroom dwelling, to just over $300,000 for a 3-bedroom house. Three show homes are already on site, but the units are made to order and factory built. Low entry and overhead costs certainly don’t mean low quality. Every home is carefully and passionately designed and can be then customised to suit the buyer’s tastes and requirements. European studies have also shown that indoor built houses are up to 30% greener than those created by traditional outdoor construction methods. Build times are also faster and quality is consistently high as all houses are built in a controlled environment indoors before being transported to site 90% completed.

Unlike other retirement villages, Freedom residents own their own homes, so the capital gains are theirs to enjoy. Low pre-set costs and subsidised essentials such as power, insurance and telephone and Internet services are also a benefit. Each Freedom Village has its own internal power network to provide lower cost electricity to residents. “This is something that needs be planned for from the outset,” explains Ms Yarrell. “It’s these sorts of measures that make Freedom Villages a secure, safer prospect for an excellent and sustainable quality of life from a fixed cost of living point of view.”

Freedom Villages will be well integrated into their local urban surroundings with design features such as community-linked walkways. Boat and campervan parking, blokes’ sheds, gardening plots and self-drive courtesy vans for residents will also be part of each village.

The first 3 show homes at the model village in Papamoa open for public viewing on Saturday 16 November. Purchasers should be able to take delivery of their personalised homes by mid 2014.