In 2024 – 25, the Australian Bureau of Statistics counted 4.5 million retired Australians aged 45 and over. The retirement-living sector estimates that about 250,000 older Australians now live in retirement communities.
Yet another number deserves our attention! Can you imagine that a peer-reviewed 2025 study of 1,178 residents across 24 retirement communities in Queensland and New South Wales found that 19.4% met the study’s threshold for loneliness. One-third of participants reported a lack of companionship.
The studies measured different groups, but together they reveal something useful: It is entirely possible to love your home but still ache for connection. Having a pool, a secure gate, and an endless list of activities will not magically give you a meaningful retirement.
What is retirement living?
Retirement living simply means choosing where and how you want to live as you get older. It can mean staying in your own home with some support, moving into a smaller and easier-to-manage home, or living in a retirement village. It is usually for people who still want to live independently while having less home maintenance and more access to community or support if needed.
In Victoria, a retirement village is legally different from a residential aged care home. It provides independent accommodation and may offer shared facilities, social activities and lifestyle services. It generally does not provide the level of healthcare or daily assistance available in residential aged care.
Residents may live in a villa, unit or apartment and choose how involved they wish to be in village life.
The Australian Government does not subsidise the cost of retirement-village accommodation. However, an eligible resident may still receive government-funded care and allied health services in their village home, just as someone can in a private house.
Retirement Village vs Residential Aged Care
A retirement village provides independent living accommodation for older people who wish to maintain their own home and lifestyle with reduced property-maintenance responsibilities. Residents generally live in a self-contained villa, unit or apartment and may access shared facilities, social activities, private services, allied health or Support at Home services as their needs change.
Residential aged care provides accommodation and ongoing care for people who require regular assistance with daily living, personal care, supervision or nursing support. Care is available on site, including 24-hour support where required.
The key distinction is that retirement villages are primarily a housing and lifestyle option, while residential aged care is a government-regulated care setting for people with higher or ongoing support needs. A retirement village may be co-located with an aged care home, but the services, eligibility and agreements remain separate.
Five ingredients of quality retirement living
The World Health Organization says healthy ageing is not simply the absence of illness. It is having the ability to do what we value: meet basic needs, make decisions, move around, maintain relationships and contribute to society. These five abilities provide a useful test for retirement living.
1. A home that fits the person
A well-designed home makes ordinary tasks easier. The entrance is manageable, lighting is clear, frequently used items are within reach and the bathroom supports safe transfers Sometimes moving a chair, changing storage or improving lighting is enough. When equipment or modifications are needed, they should suit the person’s body, habits and home — not a standard checklist.
2. Choice and control
Good support preserves decision-making. Independence does not mean refusing help; it means deciding where help is useful. Someone may accept assistance with cleaning while continuing to prepare breakfast, tend the garden or choose their weekly routine. Support should make daily life more manageable without removing the person’s role in it.
3. Reasons to keep moving
Movement is easier to maintain when it leads somewhere worth going. A walking path matters more when it reaches a friend, garden, café or community room. Australian research involving 323 retirement-village residents found that nearby destinations were associated with walking, while closeness to familiar neighbourhoods mattered for social participation. The view beyond the village gate deserves as much thought as the floor plan inside it.
4. Connection that feels genuine
Ten scheduled activities are not necessarily better than one valued friendship. Connection may mean attending a faith community, sharing tea with a neighbour, joining a gardening group or seeing grandchildren regularly. The 2025 loneliness study found that low mood, pain, falls, hospitalisation and not having someone to rely on were associated with loneliness. Sometimes the barrier is not a lack of social events. It is fatigue, reduced mobility, confidence or difficulty getting there.
5. A sense of purpose
Retirement may remove the timetable of paid work, but people still need meaningful reasons to begin the day. The Japanese idea of ikigai, often described as a reason for being, can be found in simple things such as gardening, caring for a pet, cooking for family, volunteering or meeting a friend for coffee. In occupational therapy, these meaningful everyday activities are called occupations: the things that reflect who we are and give daily life purpose.
When should you consider an occupational therapist?
As an occupational therapist at Cas Health, I look at the person, their daily activities and their environment together. I may observe how someone uses the shower, prepares a meal, gets out of a chair or enters the home. From there, we can consider practical strategies, equipment, routines or modifications.
Research reviews have found strong evidence that home and community-based OT can improve functioning among physically frail older people. Targeted home-hazard interventions can also reduce falls, particularly for people at greater risk.
An OT assessment may be helpful:
- Before downsizing, moving or renovating
- After a fall, near-fall, hospital admission or change in health
- When showering, dressing, cooking or household tasks become painful or tiring
- When someone begins avoiding parts of their home or community
- When family members are providing increasing assistance
- Before buying equipment or making significant home modifications
OT is not only for when something has gone wrong. Seeing an OT early can help identify small problems before they begin limiting everyday life.
Written & researched by: Daniel Castrucci (Founder/ Lead Occupational Therapist at Cas Health)
Edited & Uploaded by: Edward Ervin Barbon (Cas Health Support)
Follow us!
Sources:
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s12877-025-06099-x
https://www.health.gov.au/topics/aged-care/about-aged-care
https://www.who.int/news-room/questions-and-answers/item/healthy-ageing-and-functional-ability
