Over-50s Housing Trends is part of a continuous education course developed by a team of specialist editors, researchers and property experts around the world for developers, financiers, planners and industry managers. It paves a clear concise path through the thickets of information overload. All the trends canvassed have started to emerge somewhere in the world. The over-50s housing market is splintering into a hundred slivers. The certainties of the past 30 years have been shattered by generational change, and seismic shifts to the social, cultural, political and economic order. This continuous study is updated every month. It reflects change as it occurs.

65. Transforming care homes into living spaces Changing design emphasis from indoors to outdoors. The next nursing home will be a series of courtyards inviting light, sun, water, bird life, vegetation, trees and the wind into living spaces, and having the building's vibrancy enhance self help clusters of 6/7 residents determining their own meal times and daily activities.

66. Hobby farms turn into retirement homes Gradual retirement. The working professional, often using a tax break, over a significant period of time, builds up a small rural interest into a sustainable income/home for final period of life. Flowers, olives, horse stud, tree plantation, sheep/cattle stud, wine.

67. Lay down a challenge Housing/care developers and managers need to be "active" suppliers. It is not about housing 'per se,' it is about the 'reason for living.' Lay down a challenge and the over-50s demographic will respond. Buy 500 acres of land on a river. Tell the world via the internet you want 2,000 volunteers to build over 20 years the finest garden/forest/wilderness setting in the 21st century. They will come, give you $500,000 each, live in difficult conditions for first five years, and work without pay to create a lasting legacy (to themselves). It is the best motivator and far more valuable than a daily activities sheet.

68. Understand Boomer thinking then create dream The housing must facilitate the dream, not suppress it. Profits will increasingly depend on the developer / architect's ability to read Boomer aspirations and nascent dreams to unlock sales success. One developer understood the over 50 male's penchant for red wine snobbery and created 40 homes around a wine estate. It was an instant sell out.

69. Create the green world of forests/trails The outdoor environment is more important than indoor facilities. Ponds, lakes, rivers, trees, forests, walking trails are more important than the housing unit. The world of green underpins whether or not a site is acceptable. A Del Webb survey shows the five most important aspects of a development do not relate to the living space. Retirement village/aged care complex being built in rainforest of Far North Queensland/Mission Beach by Acton Group/Sean Howard.

70. Office apartments The Boomer generation is not retiring. The trend to create office/apartments. Office is completely separate (separate entrance/own bathroom/toilets). Best exemplar/Berkeley Group Development in London.

71. Buying cash flow The Second Great Depression is altering boomer thinking on funding future. Baby Boomers are turning into "Baby Gloomers" - a fifth of them face retirement with an unpaid mortgage. Nearly half of 2,300 people surveyed by RaboDirect said their financial situation was worse than it was a year ago. More than 60 per cent expect it to be even worse in the coming year. Nearly half feared running out of money. One in four said they didn't manage to save last year, or have no savings. A third did not have a will. Of those with a will the average value of their estate was $476,000 (AUD). Gites á la française, a French estate agency, has created a niche in the vast French property market. It concentrates on selling property which has an income-producing capacity: gites or flats which can be instantly let as holiday homes. Today's buyers want an instant income stream. "A typical property is a small estate with land, a main house and one or two income- producing gites. The gites will produce a steady income - between €20k and €50k per annum - which means that most properties have a ROI of around 7-10 per cent."

72. Rejuvenating sports grounds A trend is emerging where small property developers are finding work redeveloping sporting clubs/grounds with obsolete playing fields and dilapidated clubhouses into shopping centres with multi-generational apartments and medical facilities. The trend is well underway in the UK, USA and Australia. Property executives are finding work redeveloping sporting clubs - many of which have fallen into debt amid falling patronage. Lawyer David Hynes has picked up contracts to convert obsolete playing fields and dilapidated clubhouses into shopping centres and apartments. "There are about 1,500 clubs in NSW, many of which are faced with declining membership, reduced revenue from gaming, changing social habits, ageing infrastructure and anti-smoking legislation," says Hynes, who competed in the 1996 Olympics in baseball. While clubs are often rich in assets, zoning curbs and a lack of cash mean they can't unlock the value of their landholdings. "Short-term solutions such as selling off a portion of land without any ongoing income stream or the lack of a future business plan for the club have led to numerous clubs failing to prosper," Hynes says. Hynes has an agreement to manage a $300 million redevelopment of the Cronulla Sharks properties in Sydney's Sutherland Shire. His plan for the Sharks site includes 12,500 square metres of retail and 750 multi- generational apartments.

73. An opportunity at the turning of the tide Traditional housing providers spent too much time waiting at bus stop No. 9 for their clients, when they got off at an earlier stop. The window for a new home opens when the last child leaves the education system, somewhere between A shrewd interpretor of Boomer Dreams has a large profit awaiting. If you miss this window you don’t get a second shot with all tides thereafter keeping everyone at home...forever.

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