Southland

Why choose a retirement village in Southland?

The southern edge of the world offers plenty of options for your retirement years.

The region’s largest city of Invercargill offers old-world heritage architecture, wide streets, and the beautiful Queens Park gardens which give it a unique charm. While Invercargill is famous as the home of Bert Munro, who set the world land speed record in 1967 on his Indian Scout motorbike, neighbouring Gore is the centre of country music in New Zealand, hosting an annual music festival. The seaside town of Aparima Riverton, with its longstanding history of our Māori and Pākehā ancestors, offers the chance to get up close to nature by exploring the iconic Riverton Rocks area or swimming, surfing, or even dolphin watching in the surrounding bays.

There are other advantages to this area. The long summer daylight hours in Southland mean you can garden, play golf, or walk round the neighbourhood into the summer evenings.

Many retirement villages in this region offer a range of care levels, should you require this in future. And, of course, there’s also a choice of styles of villas, townhouses, and apartments.

A retirement village is a community specially built to cater for the needs and lifestyle of older people. Choosing to live in a retirement village can be a great option for those wanting to maintain their independence while living among a like-minded community of people.

Research shows most people enjoy a high level of satisfaction when living in a lifestyle or retirement village. For residents, the benefits can be numerous; these may include giving you peace of mind, new and varied activities and interests, new friendships, and time to be able to spend on the things you most enjoy.

Villages vary greatly – you’ll notice different-sized villages, from very few units to some with hundreds; different types of units within the same complex; newer villages and older villages. You will discover the community offering a wide range such as swimming pool, bowling green and café. Eligibility age differs across villages too – some villages may allow residents to enter at 55 while others commonly have an entry age between 65 and 75.

As well as providing a range of different accommodation options, many villages now offer alternatives, such as care suites, which combine village offerings and residential care components. Make sure you visit a village more than once before you make a decision, and if possible visit more than one village to get a feel for how each has its own culture.

When you are ready to visit some retirement villages, our checklist may help you with your assessment.