DREAM LIVING: Blue Earth Group’s Gravity Tower will have the style to match its prime location. Picture: PLUS ARCHITECTURE
Imagine enjoying your active later years in a vibrant community within walking distance or a short drive to cafes, restaurants, art galleries, museums and theatres.
If your retirement is five or 10 years or even further away, even better. You can use this time to plan to make such an aspiration a reality. Investing in Fishermans Bend may allow you to have a future lifestyle most people can only dream of.
I’ve drawn on more than 20 years’ experience as a real estate agent, property marketer and property developer to create my Future Home Strategy. It’s a strategy I have used myself.
My idea of buying a future home five or 10 years before retirement or downsizing is based on the knowledge that we know most people will eventually move from their existing homes at this stage of their lives.
As grown-up children leave the nest, a large home with a backyard in the suburbs is not what most people will want to live in when they suddenly find themselves with more time on their hands and, generally speaking, with a little more money to enjoy life.
Downsizing doesn’t necessarily and doesn’t usually mean spending less money, however. For many people, it’s moving to something lifestyle-related – not a sea change but living in the same city you’re already in and close to the coffee shops and cultural amenities that most of us seem to like and, of course, staying close to our family and friends.
That’s why many retirement villages don’t appeal and often end in disappointment for many of the residents. The idea of living with other older people is not everyone’s cup of tea. Retirement and pre-retirement options such as these tend to be on the outskirts of the city because of the facilities they offer such as golf courses, tennis courts and swimming pools. You need lots of land for that and they are not making any more of it close to the centre of our cities where many of us would choose to live if we had the opportunity.
My experience is that most people still want to be part of society — among people of all ages.
Fishermans Bend will provide an exceptional opportunity to buy your future home in an area that is the largest urban renewal project in Australia, some parts of which are just 1km from the centre of Melbourne, Australia’s cultural capital and most liveable city.
As what we believe will become Australia’s first true vertical village, Fishermans Bend will eventually offer residents a place to live with all of the character and the feel of a village community in addition to having quick access to all of the amenities of the CBD.
Living in such a central, desirable location will make it easier and more appealing for family and friends to visit you.
The essence of my Future Home Strategy is that you buy your future home early and then when it’s time to move, you sell your current home and move into the second home bought for downsizing or retirement.
As an example and to illustrate how this might work for you, imagine if your current home is worth $1,000,000 and the future retirement home you buy now is also worth $1,000,000. Each home would be valued at just under $1.5million ($1,480,000) within 10 years, assuming a modest annual capital growth of 4%.
When it’s time to move into the second home, you would have the sale proceeds of your current home of $1.48 million less expenses to pay out the mortgage on the second home you’re moving into. Providing you had paid off your mortgage on your current home, you would have the funds to pay out the loan on the second property, be debt-free and there may even be money left over to freshen up your new home.
In truth, you may be even better off. This is because the desirability of the location to which you might want to move might experience more capital growth than where you currently live. This means the gap in value between where you currently live and where you would like to live in the future is increasing to such an extent that even though you may like to live in that preferred location, you may not be prepared to spend the money needed to buy the property.
This is why you need to plan now to achieve your goal of having the perfect retirement home. Leaving it to the last minute could compromise the lifestyle you had hoped for.
As approvals keep coming through, there will be a range of opportunities for people to buy into Fishermans Bend at all price levels. There will be terrace-type houses, some low-rise apartments with courtyards and some high-rise residential towers.
Some developments will suit younger buyers and some projects will be designed for people to age comfortably through retirement with lifts, low maintenance and good security.
Fishermans Bend Realty will be able to guide you towards your best option, even if that means waiting for the right project to come along.
Borrowing money to fund your Future Home need not be daunting. The idea is full of integrity and very compelling. In terms of investment, it’s low risk because while you are still investing, you are actually buying your Future Home — just earlier than most people do.
We look forward to helping you achieve a rewarding and exciting retirement.