The international study tour of West Coast USA organised by marketing agency One Fell Swoop has just returned from inspecting 18 retirement communities and high service hospitality businesses across Los Angeles, San Diego and San Francisco in 10 days.
They are photographed at the University of Southern California Department of Gerontology.
Several key points of learning came out of the tour; over the next few weeks we will review some of them.
Most important was the fact that retirement communities have rebounded from the GFC with great energy, in large part because of the incorporation of care into the housing value proposition.
Andrew Giles, Strategy Director at One Fell Swoop, sums it up : From the communities we visited, the industry appears to be really booming.
Since I visited the United States in 2010 there are some emerging trends that are shaping the product in seniors communities. There has been a massive investment in memory (dementia) care in all of the communities we visited. The full service, hospitality and care offer is really driving increased uptake, as seniors see the high value of being able to age in place, he said.
The twenty-four industry delegates from Australia and New Zealand included senior leaders and board members from across the industry including Stockland, Aveo, Lend Lease, Retirement Communities Australia and Lifeview as well as not for profit organisations such as Basscare, Catholic Homes, Baptcare, Real Living (NZ) and St. Andrews Village (NZ).
One Fell Swoop, supported by the Property Council of Australia Retirement Living Council, developed the tour to enhance inspire new ideas and to facilitate innovation in the service offering to seniors.
More next week.
