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

A BRISBANE property developer has given a glimpse of how the elderly might be living in the future.

The elderly could be inhabiting high-density apartment blocks in the future.

• Elderly to fill apartments
• Apartment boom continues
• Brisbane defies oversupply

MORE older Australians in the future will be living in higher-density buildings in established suburbs and with services provided to let them to live independently for longer.

Aura Holdings director Tim Russell said the retirement living sector has evolved considerably over the past 20 years.

“When I started in the sector retirement living was almost exclusively in the form of broad acre brick and tile single level homes in the outer suburbs under the deferred management model,” he said.

“It was pure accommodation, no services apart from maintenance and gardening and those sorts of things

“Now I see further development in the medium density infill model where operators have service strategies so ultimately when someone does move into a retirement living unit it is probably their last move.”

Aura was founded in 2016 by Tim Russell and Mark Taylor who created the RetireAustralia, the nation’s largest privately owned operator of retirement villages at the time it was sold.

Afterwards they set up Aura which is a joint venture with Blue Sky Alternative Investments which provides the capital.

Aura Holdings director Tim Russell at his Corinda development. Picture: Jack Tran

Aura is currently developing Kingsford Terrace in Corinda, in Brisbane’s south west, which is earmarked for 215 units and a $67 million development in Maroochydore, on the Sunshine Coast, comprising 116 apartments in two buildings.

It has plans for a further 500 units with negotiations on sites in Coorparoo and Lutwyche, in inner Brisbane, and possible opportunities in Toowoomba and the Gold Coast.

Mr Russell said Aura’s strategy was to develop high quality retirement living communities in premium infill sites in southeast Queensland, allowing people to stay in the area where they have formed solid connections with services, family and friends.

Importantly Aura has partnered with Five. Good. Friends which will curates services for residents in their developments as their needs change.

“The sector is starting to understand that you have to offer more than accommodation. You need to offer service in my homes as their needs change,” Mr Russell said.

”The service offering that I’m talking about is that you have to be able to answer the questions: What happens when? What happens if?

“It’s all right to provide a beautiful unit for an older person or older couple to move in ... but it’s about providing that extra level of service so people know that when they move into a village they have the ability to stay independent in their home for as long as possible.

“Previously those services were not available and people had to make the move to low aged care residential facilities, so there was an extra step involved before a hospital or hospice.”