A $46million resort-style village for over 50s – the first of its kind in New Zealand – is being built in Papamoa.

The concept aims to offer residents both the security of owning their own home and the freedom and finances to travel and enjoy life.

Rudy Van Het Wout and Juliette Yarrell at Freedom Villages in Papamoa. Photo: Tracy Hardy.

Proven successful in Australia and the United States, it is being launched in Papamoa by married couple Rudy Van Het Wout and Juliette Yarrell, who have plans for another four villages across New Zealand.

Juliette says the village targets the younger, more active and still working or semi-retired, compared to those who choose to live in a more traditional retirement development in New Zealand.

It will feature about 160 new ground-level homes, costing from $219,000 to a little more than $300,000.

Juliette says interest in the village is incredible – with more than 600 interested parties attending the launch in November.

'A rapidly growing segment of the 50-plus market is making the decision to enjoy their lifestyle choices sooner and unlock the capital tied up in their current residential properties.”

Juliette says about 50,000 over-50-year-olds have had their savings and investments substantially reduced or wiped out by the recent global financial crisis – and its knock-on effects, in terms of failed finance companies.

'But these people still want to cash up and enjoy the latter halves of their lives in full control of their finances and quality of life.”

Sites have been designed with this in mind, with room set aside specifically for owners to park their motorhomes and boats.

The village will not be gated, and there will be no care facility, but it will have the security and benefit of retirement village status under the 2003 Retirement villages Act.

It will be built to have a resort feel – with community-linked walkways, boat and campervan parking, blokes' sheds, gardening plots, self-drive courtesy vans for residents; and a wide range of electronic entertainment options, such as pay-per-view movies and high-speed internet.

Like most retirement villages there is a weekly fee of $135-155 per week, but Freedom Villages residents own their house and can enjoy capital gains on their house when they sell.

'The next step, later on in life, might then be to look at their aged care needs in the knowledge that the capital gains on their Freedom homes are theirs to enjoy.”

Homes come in three sizes and are designed by top New Zealand designer David Ponting. He has created affordable factory-built homes, which would be built to order and transported to the Papamoa site, says Juliette.

The first three show homes at the model village on Golden Sands Drive are open for viewing. Purchasers should be able to move into their personalised homes by mid-2014.