Many pre-retirees attest to feeling anxious and doubtful in the months leading up to retirement as they begin second-guessing their decisions about their retirement plans.
While retirement may be a once-off event, getting it right takes careful, meticulous planning in the years leading up to it to ensure that your retirement years are what you envisage them to be.
Oasis Life Retirement has recently launched their ‘Trial your lifestyle’ campaign, enabling ‘retiree fence sitters’ to test one of their retirement villages, set within secure multi-generational suburbs, to aid their decision when it comes to investing in a retirement home.
Property Wheel was invited as the first to trial a day and a night at Oasis Burgundy Estate located at the foothills of the Durbanville winelands and we were nothing short of impressed with their exceptional hospitality and unrivalled attention to detail, particularly by their estate manager, Shawn Ferreira, who knew each resident’s name in passing.
Oasis Burgundy Estate currently boasts 180 units comprising a mix of apartments, cottages, and houses with developers, Rabie, expanding to 325 front doors to complete the project. A life rights development, investors who aren’t quite ready to retire, but who want to start planning the next phase of their life, also have the option of purchasing and leasing for a minimum of one year and a maximum of five years.
Not only was I housed in one of their comfortable two-bedroom, one-bathroom units, with modern and stylish finishes, but I also got to try one of the various activities listed on Oasis Burgundy Estate’s daily social calendar (planned a month in advance) and jampacked with various offerings including Pilates, water aerobics, chess, bowls, line dancing, and canasta – to name a few. On certain evenings, residents are also spoilt with a live band, quiz night, and social bowls.
I sat for two hours with a group of female residents as part of a card making session and I entered a conversation with one of the residents sitting beside me, Maureen. On the passing of her husband, she pushed herself to investigate her different retirement options which included a visit to Oasis Burgundy Estate. Shortly afterwards, she signed to purchase a unit, and she’s never looked back.
She told Property Wheel that she feels like she is permanently on holiday at Oasis Burgundy Estate and she does not feel like a retiree as she has built a busy social life within the estate coupled with the daily activities on offer. Her unit also allows for her privacy but if she needs company, she visits the Clubhouse. “My children need to phone me nowadays to make sure that I am at home or that I am free before they visit me,” she remarked, laughing. She also needs to invest in a new pair of comfortable walking shoes for her daily ventures between the different activities and which often includes taking a light stroll to the nearby shops and amenities with fellow residents.
Daily hospitality offerings include a ‘Chef’s Meal of the Day’ (at an additional cost to residents) which can be delivered to their unit(s) as well as the Clubhouse’s extensive menu – and amazing coffee.
The sense of community was what stuck out for me at Oasis Burgundy Estate. With the average age of residents at the 74-year mark, they have built a strong group of friendships which revolve around the various activities on offer within the estate and in doing so, maintaining an active lifestyle – a relief for their families, who may live far away or overseas, knowing that their parents and/or grandparents are within a secure setting and living ‘their best lives’ during retirement.
The residents, and estate manager Shawn Ferreira, can also tell you who lives in which unit throughout the estate – which is rare in any sort of estate setting, in my belief.
