MIKE Gibbs said the 104m2 retirement units built at Avonlea Rest Home are close to going on the market for sale.
AVONLEA Rest Home’s foray into providing retirement village accommodation at Taumarunui took a big step forward this week. Avonlea Trust chair Mike Gibbs said four 104m2, two-bedroom villas built as duplexes, had been finished and were receiving final landscaping touches ahead of preparation for sale. A valuation had yet to be obtained, but Mike expected the units to be offered to the market for a price, “with a five at the beginning”. The build had been a major project for the small aged care provider, which would pause six months ahead of commencing the construction of four additional duplexes. These would be completed within about 12 months, bringing the number of retirement units provided at Avonlea to eight. SUITABLE ACCOMMODATION “Nearly seven years ago we realised there was no suitable retirement village accommodation for people in Taumarunui,” Mike said. “Lots of people wanted to go into retirement villages but they had to leave town to do so, and the only other type of aged accommodation available locally were council flats, which didn’t suit everyone’s needs. But we had this space here and realised we should do something with it. “We are a member of a larger grouping of eight-or-nine rest homes throughout greater Waikato, most having retirement villages associated with them. They pointed out to us that with the economics of running rest homes being frankly abysmal, developing retirement village accommodation was now regarded as essential to subsidise the rest home side.” HEAD ABOVE WATER On this score, Mike said had only been the outstanding management skills of the Avonlea manager, Anna Looby, that had enabled the Taumarunui facility to keep its head above water in economic terms. “This resthome is not for profit; it’s basically owned by the community (via the Avonlea Trust) and none of the trustees are paid – it is just a voluntary thing we do,” Mike said. “So we decided we’d give it a crack and look at building something. We engaged an architect we dealt with 10 years previously when we built a wing on Avonlea. We batted ideas around, came up with this concept and drew-up plans. “There were a couple of false starts due to out-of-town building contractors being unable to perform. But Fraser McKenzie, of Max McKenzie Ltd, came to the party and agreed to do it all at a considerably reduced rate – basically cost-plus, rather than the usual builder’s margins. SUPPLY CHAIN ISSUES “We got things going, right in the midst of the supply chain issues a little over 12 months ago, which impacted our original budgets. For example, all bricks come from Australia and the ones we really liked we couldn’t get enough of to do the whole project. So we could never guarantee that we could get all we wanted in time, or that the lines wouldn’t get discontinued, or something like that. “But Fraser managed things brilliantly with a lot of forward ordering. He organised all the colour steel for the roofs, the bricks for claddings and had advanced bookings for framing and that sort of thing. He used leading local subcontractors such as plumbers, electricians, painters. The philosophy of the project has been to involve local trades as much as we can. WOOL A MUST “We also made a point of stipulating wool carpets and wool insulation. The central King Country comprises the largest sheep-raising area of New Zealand and coarse wool farmers here are doing it tough. Hence, we thought it would be false of us to use synthetics, then try to sell these units to local retired farmers.” Mike said features included wheelchair-friendly wet floor bathrooms and appliances that were built in, with the exception of washing machines. The back of each unit opened onto a patio area where the clothesline was located and these areas boasted pleasant rural views. “These units are now completed – I have the keys, the last of the concrete was laid last week. The trustees came in last weekend for a working bee to plant hedging along fence lines, plus specimen trees and shrubs.” Mike said the units would be sold with an occupation right agreement, which was previously referred to as a license to occupy. COSTS This meant that when the owner wanted to sell their unit they had to offer it to Avonlea Trust initially; if the trust didn’t want it they could then take it to the market. “If Avonlea purchases the unit, there would be refurbishment costs which is the normal thing across retirement villages, and then we will split any profit on sale 50/50 with the vendor. “We are here to serve our community, that is the big difference between a not-for-profit and a corporate approach. But we do need to make some profit in order to keep our rest home facility going.”
