Kevin Beirne, head of retirement living at Octopus Real Estate, reflects on why the development of retirement communities represents a growing opportunity for investors
A few years ago, Robert De Niro starred in a comedy called The Intern. The premise of the film was simple: De Niro’s character was a 70-year-old widowed retiree who re-entered the workforce to work for a fashion e-commerce start up. Amid the entertainment of a revered actor like De Niro serving his new boss - a 30-something fashion entrepreneur played by Anne Hathaway – coffee, and learning to work without the Yellow Pages, the movie offered a refreshing antidote to the conventional wisdom that retirement means adjourning one’s career and picking up crosswords.
For me, as well as being a light-hearted, feelgood film, it signified a bigger issue about the widespread, and misplaced, conventional wisdom that often besets the world of retirement. There are many commonly held notions that are standing in the way of a successful future for the retired generations, and retirement real estate is one such area that is rife with misconceptions. Throughout this piece, I hope to shine a light on some alternative thinking that might reimagine what real estate looks like for retirees.
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