Hervey Bay has lost its shine as a retirement hotspot according to Graeme and Janet Douglas, who left the town to move into an over 50’s community on the Gold Coast.
The recently retired couple have moved into the 150th home in the multi-award wining Seachange Village Arundel after looking at almost every over 50s community from Brisbane to the NSW border.
Graeme says Seachange was the first community they looked at, and each one they saw after just didn’t compare.
“The location is fantastic with Arundel Plaza Shopping Centre right across the road a major draw card for us,” Graeme says.
“It means we’re close to the supermarket, medical centre, vet, tavern and a number of other specialty stores.
“There’s such a huge variety of things to do both physical and social, if they just brought the supermarket over we’d never have to leave.”
The couple moved to Hervey Bay from Victoria nine years ago and retired there in 2010, but found it too isolated to be able to regularly see family.
“We’ve only been here a few of weeks and everyone within the community without exception is so friendly, including staff,” Graeme says.
“In that short time we have more friends to catch up with than we had in Hervey Bay after living there for nine years.
“We’ve moved in the best of the best over 50s communities and the only decision we need to make now is what activities to take part in.”
Janet says they love the tropical feel of Seachange; the landscaping around the community makes their home really appealing and requires very little maintenance.
“We found with other over 50s communities they were mainly all concrete and had very ordinary landscaping,” Janet says.
“We’ve always had nice gardens around our home so we wanted to move somewhere that shared that quality, and Seachange certainly does”.
Graeme says there’s always something going on at Seachange and they could be up at 6am everyday and have things to do right through until 10pm if they wanted.
“One of the best features we found was the number of things for me to enjoy such as the wood workshop, as the other communities failed to cater for male-specific activities,” Graeme says.
“The secure environment also means we can head to the country club at night and walk home without any worries.
“It brings us comfort knowing that if anything were to happen to one of us, we are surrounded by friends to support us.”
Seachange Village’s new stage release unveiled by Gold Coast Mayor Tom Tate will feature a limited number of the hugely popular Brampton design homes.
The Brampton includes a master bedroom with en-suite, a second bedroom that can be used as multi purpose room or study, a powder room, open-plan kitchen, and living area plus single lock-up garage with an internal entrance to the home.
Seachange Village is offering all buyers who purchase off the plan a saving of $7,500.
With 16 homes sold in just six weeks, secure your future by free-calling 1800 652 797 or visiting the Welcome Centre at 299 Napper Road, Arundel.v
