It’s very tough when you are the first to the market with something new. For example, retirement homes. An even tougher part is to launch a new concept in a city where people generally believe that they live very well today and may not want to fork out extra for something they have no understanding yet. Yes, retirement homes in Ipoh. Many months back, I wrote about this and it garnered quite a lot of interest. Read here: Retirement Village – What and Why? Recently, an Ipoh based developer Total Investment Sdn Bhd (TI Homes) held a ground breaking ceremony for its GreenAcres retirement homes. This is a gated and guarded project of 170 homes and a club house. There is also a further 3 acres for future aged-care facilities. I believe Ipoh is a very good place to retire and yes, I believe it’s better than Penang in many areas. Of course, Penang benefits from it’s much higher prominence by virtue of it having an international airport, it’s position as a manufacturing hub as well as more recently, the UNESCO Heritage City status. Ipoh meanwhile has the charm of a slow enough and yet vibrant when you need kind of city. From universities to smaller manufacturing industries as well as private hospitals and a huge variety of very delicious food, Ipoh has it all too.
According to its Executive Director John Chong whom I know personally, “GreenAcres will be Malaysia’s premier retirement village, a purpose built community that provides a superior lifestyle for citizens entering the golden years of their life. It is a place where senior citizens can enjoy good quality living while remaining active and independent, where they can age gracefully and with full dignity,” Okay, he did not mention the fact that these citizens should also preferably be able to afford one. Fortunately the price is pretty affordable even compared to the usual condo or apartment prices in Kuala Lumpur or even Penang. In fact in Malaysia, as the retirement age is 56, the target market is quite huge and if successful, there would be more retirement homes sprouting in every state in Malaysia. Both men and women are also living longer these days. Men, up to an average age of 72 and women at 77.
To those who believe retirement homes are just like old folks home, it’s okay, I have no intention to convince you not to go to old folks home. Please do go ahead. However, to those who have just retired, with kids working elsewhere, older neighbours moving out or presently living in a pretty big landed property without many people to talk to, do think about GreenAcres. In fact, why not just drop by and understand its concept. Wanting to get one is another decision altogether but there’s little harm in knowing more. Retirement homes allow for a community of the more respected generation to have the chance of closer interaction with one another. Thus, their lives can be more active, vibrant and definitely more independent. You decide what kind of activities that you want to do, within a safe and conducive environment. New acquaintances would soon become friends and these might be the friends who would be there for you when you need a few football mates to cheer with or cheer against. Please do not tell me that older folks don’t watch football? 🙂 Or you can listen to what John has to say, “GreenAcres will offer senior citizens, aged 55 years and above, the opportunity to enjoy a better quality of life,”
For those who think living in a condo is a good substitute for a retirement home, think again. How many times have we heard of people living in condos not knowing their neighbours? This is not because the neighbours are not friendly, far from it. Most of the time, when everyone is working, no one has time to talk to one another and during weekends, no one would want to stay at home. In a retirement home however, everyone would have much more opportunities to meet one another. The activities and the facilities would also help in facilitating this. You can say these people have similar age and thus the chances that their topics of conversation or interest would likely be closer. The units are also not for full ownership which meant that it would be occupied by senior folks all the time. The units are also built be elder friendly; grab bars in the bathroom, larger switches, wider doorways for easier wheelchair entry etc. The leasing fees ranges from RM300,000 to RM452,000 for Phase 1 for a lifetime basis. Of course as usual, there would also be the usual sinking funds and maintenance charges. GreenAcres is expected to be completed by 2016.
Do contact TI Homes for more information. Their website: http://www.greenacres.com.my/introduction.html There’s no need to mention my name because there are no extra discounts. Haha. The choice is now available and the decision is always yours to make.
written on 28 Nov 2014
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0 Responses
*thumbs up*, I personally feel that Retirement Village is a good concept, I hope they will run it successfully.