Aura Holdings’ has six vertical villages on the way and two more in the pipeline with location being the key factor

From a chat over a beer just over four years ago a business that develops and operates quality `vertical villages’ for retirees has gone from strength to strength.

Aura Holdings directors Mark Taylor and Tim Russell inside an apartment at The Atrium in Lutwyche. Picture: Mark Cranitch.

Just over four years ago Mark Taylor was having a beer with Tim Russell when his former workmate edged a coaster towards him having written the words: “Low pay, high fun”.

Taylor said yes to the job offer he couldn’t refuse and Aura Holdings was born with the aim of smoothing out what can be a bumpy journey for older retirees leaving their much loved family home they can no longer maintain.

With a long history in the sector Taylor and Russell, both 50, have seen it transform, sparked by growing demand and in turn a shift from broadacre single level retirement villages to what Aura offers — quality apartments in established suburbs.

A couple of decades ago there were very few retirees living in a so-called “vertical villages”.

But Taylor says that has changed with a greater acceptance of medium density living.

And that’s where Aura comes in.

Retirees flock to Stage 3 of Aura Holding’s Kingsford Terrace community in Corinda which will be completed in late 2020

Aura Australia director Tim Russell believes the future of senior retirement living is high density with a range of available services

“What we bring to the table is medium density and high quality communities along with good management. But overall location is the key for us and our clients. It makes moving so much easier for them,” Taylor says.

“We’ve put together a pretty decent portfolio in a reasonably short time frame when you consider what it takes to get something like this together.

“And, over that short time it’s been very rewarding to start something from scratch and see it come to fruition and see people happily moving in and changing their lives for the better.”

They first worked together at FKP which later became Aveo. Then Russell started Meridien Retirement Living which became RetireAustralia and was later joined by Taylor.

In 2015 RetireAustralia was sold to a superannuation fund and Aura was born a year later with Taylor and Russell as owners and directors.

A developer and operator, Aura now has six retirement villages — or 800 apartments — in southeast Queensland either completed or at various stages of development and the company is negotiating on two further sites.

Of Aura’s six projects, the 59-apartment The Atrium in Lutwyche is their first fully completed development.

Aura Holdings’ The Atrium development at Lutwyche.

They expect the final stage of The Avenue Maroochydore on the Sunshine Coast to be completed in September and the first stage of The Pavilion at North Kirra on the Gold Coast to be finished by mid 2021.

Construction of Stage 3 of Kingsford Terrace Corinda, has started with more stages to go while early work has started on Somerset Indooroopilly and the Ninth Middle Range within the Toowoomba Golf Course.

An artist’s impression of Aura Holdings’ The Ninth Middle Range development at the Toowoomba Golf Club.

Russell says they wanted to start a retirement living business from scratch because they sought to focus on areas that they believed were undersupplied.

“We focus on infill opportunities in mature suburbs where there’s generally a large proportion of older people who don’t have a genuine opportunity to downsize in the area they know,” he says.

“We’re thinking about a customer who’s 70 plus or more often over 75. The family home is starting to become a little unmanageable and often very costly to maintain and we believe there’s a better alternative for them.

“But we don’t want it to look and feel like a residential aged care facility. Our goal in our business is to keep people out of aged care facilities. We want to provide people with amenity and allow then to live independently for as long as possible.”

An artist’s impression of Aura Holdings’ multi-staged development Kingsford Terrace Corinda

For the two qualified accounts — whose company is backed by Singapore-based private real estate investment firm SC Capital Partners — Aura is essentially retirement village operator.

“We’re developers by default because we have to be,” Russell says.

“After we complete the building that’s when our journey with the residents begins.”

While Aura’s villages look similar to an upscale apartment complex they are very different.

All residents are “like-minded” and of a similar age, They are all owner-occupiers who buy the 99-year leasehold of the apartment which, when they leave, is re-sold at market prices on a new 99-year lease.

The buildings have plenty of amenity from pool rooms, to cafes, pools and a strong social life; the villages are safe and secure; and the apartments themselves have age appropriate features.

Importantly, each village has a Five Good Friends service which curates flexible services for residents to enable them to age in place and maintain their independence within the communities for as long as possible.

“We want to operate villages that stand the test of tine. We want to build and operate villages where we’d be happy to have our parents move in and one day that may well be us,” Russell says.