Why It's More Than A Sale To Us

With David Cobb, Junior Legal Counsel at Lifestory.

As a developer of later living homes, we sit in a unique position of not just selling or renting these homes, we also retain our interest in these properties by employing our own onsite teams. We ensure our customers retain an independent lifestyle in order to enjoy their retirement and redefine the way we view our later years as a society. However, it would be remiss of us to only acknowledge the good times; the sector we operate in requires a perspective that understands that those buying and renting our homes are investing in more than bricks and mortar: they’re investing in our service and our ability to be there, just the right amount when needed.?

Our on-site teams are pivotal in the success of our communities and enable us to bring together a wide range of individuals. Not only do they manage our buildings, but they seek to understand our homeowners, how they live and what they want from the next stage of their lives. They grow our communities and facilitate events for our homeowners to enjoy such as weekly coffee mornings, birthday celebrations and most will enjoy the Queen’s jubilee in June. With this, our onsite teams also have an understanding that not everyone is in the same place as others and some have gone through a difficult journey to make this move to our developments, or they have started to fall into ill health.

When this happens we offer support where appropriate, some of our homeowners don’t have family members or next of kin to rely on when life changes for them, but because they are members of our community we do what we can to make sure they receive the best support possible.?

Although it benefits all our later living developments, I can think of one particular homeowner who benefited from this sense of community. They moved in alone and really struggled to adapt to living in a communal environment, they suffered from various health issues that dented their confidence and stopped them from going to communal events and they largely kept themself to themselves, then COVID hit which made a lonely situation worse. As can happen when someone spends too much time alone, behaviours change and thoughts manifest themselves differently, in this instance, the changes in behaviour became concerning and upsetting to our Lifehost and the other homeowners. We had several conversations, some difficult and very honest with the person and tried to work towards a solution to help them, which I am pleased to say worked for a short while, sadly when they relapsed they ended up injured and in hospital.?

What followed in their recovery has shown how our communities and our desire as a business to care for all of those living in the developments we build makes a difference. In my opinion, showing an interest in someone who has all but given up is always worthwhile no matter the outcome. I am pleased to say the outcome of this situation is very positive and although it is still early days the future for this homeowner looks much brighter thanks in no small part to our community of homeowners and to my colleagues.?

As we look to the future of later living in a broader sense, we are aware that life goes on every day. That’s why our pride, above all else, is in our service, and our ability to be there, just the right amount, when needed.