"From Second Homes to Retirement Dwellings: Opportunities for Senior Housing Developments in the Mediterranean Region"


María Ángeles Casado-Díaz
University of the West of England, UK
Instituto de Economía Internacional, University of Alicante, Spain


Abstract

According to the latest statistics there were approximately 20,000 thousand of foreign residents, older than 56 years old, living in the Costa Blanca. Torrevieja (Alicante) is the most important coastal municipality with residential tourism in the Costa Blanca with 80% of the housing stock being second homes and 20% of the local population being retired non-Spanish Europeans.

The 'temporary' use of these residential developments has more commonly become a year-round use in a large number of second-home communities. However, considering the increasing number of old and frail people living alone in their, in the first place, 'tourist' dwellings, and the lack of well established long-term care services among the Spanish communities, there is an important market niche for senior housing developments in the Mediterranean coast.

This paper discusses some of the main demographic, socio-economic and housing issues, of the elderly foreign communities living in the Costa Blanca through the results of an over two hundred questionnaire survey and in-depth interviews carried out among the elderly living permanently in Torrevieja (Costa Blanca). It also looks at some of the experiences of senior housings in the Spanish Mediterranean coast, and the preferences of the potential demand of seniors housing developments in these tourist areas "colonised" by retired non-Spanish communities.

Keywords: retirement migration, second-home developments, senior housing, tourism, Spain.

For further details, please email the author at Maria.Casado-Diaz@uwe.ac.uk.

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