Just one week’s search to find the perfect village
For many, the search for a new home can span months or even years. For Robyn and Rob Howard, that quest was surprisingly swift.
After a single week, they’d discovered the perfect place for them – Arvida Knightsbridge retirement community in Windsor Park, Auckland.
“We were always dead against coming into retirement places,” Rob admits, “but a close friend reinvented themselves after moving into a village so that gave us the idea.”
For 34 years, the pair lived in their family home and weren’t prepared to settle for just anything when it came to a retirement community. The right village had to feel like more than just a collection of houses; it had to offer comfort and freedom. “The minute we drove into Arvida Knightsbridge, we felt like we were driving into a park because of the beautiful gardens,” Robyn recalls. The villa they chose wasn’t just private and sunlit all day, it was also spacious and surrounded by open spaces.
Letting go of their family home meant saying goodbye to belongings, but the couple haven’t missed what they downsized. “We haven’t left the problem of downsizing to the kids, and there’s a lot less things to dust now,” Robyn says with a laugh.
The move also brought tangible financial benefits. “The move really freed up our assets so it made a huge plus financially for us,” Rob observes. With complete ‘lock up and leave’ convenience, the pair say they’re now free to travel for months at a time, knowing that lawns will be mowed, maintenance taken care of, and the home will be ready for their return.
Since moving into their two-bedroom villa in February, the most surprising moment was finding out their villa was transformed by a thorough refurbishment. “The villa was completely gutted and everything that went back in was new, and I’ve never lived in a brand-new home before,” Robyn says. Even the gardens were redesigned with their preferences in mind.
Now that Robyn and Rob are settled, they look back at their own retirement reinvention. “Where we're at in our lives, this move has given us more freedom than what we had at home - financial freedom and maintenance freedom. We’ve reinvented ourselves to get on with our lives and do whatever we want to do,” Rob says.