Future living priorities
Besides healthcare access, how important are lifestyle factors like socialising with family and friends, pursuing hobbies, and staying fit and healthy in deciding where to live in retirement to our cohort?
Lifestyle still matters
While access to healthcare is rightly seen as essential, it’s far from the only priority when people think about where they want to live later in life. Across the board, lifestyle factors - from staying fit and active to pursuing hobbies and getting outdoors - were framed as vital contributors to wellbeing, not “nice-to-haves.”
Participants were clear that retirement doesn't mean retreating from life. Many described the importance of maintaining daily routines, staying mentally and physically stimulated, and having the freedom to choose how they spend their time. This could mean gardening, walking, swimming, or even picking up new part-time work - not just for income, but for stimulation and sociability.
“I swim three times a week. I walk a lot… I am actively pursuing my health.”
“We like the gardening... in the winter months, hobbies tend more to be reading… just doing things around the house.”
This desire for agency extended beyond activities to environment. People wanted homes and communities that enabled their chosen lifestyle - that supported movement, creativity, and routine - not environments that quietly nudged them toward passivity.
Connections, not crowds
While social connection was a consistent theme, participants weren’t calling for endless events or forced mingling. What they wanted was meaningful connection on their own terms — the chance to stay close to friends, family and community, but without the pressure to be ‘social’ all the time.
Several interviewees referenced the quiet confidence of being embedded in a place where they already had their people — and how that sense of rootedness contributed more to their wellbeing than any pre-planned social calendar.
“I have all the friends that I want to have. My relations and family are within relatively easy distance.”
“I have a group of good friends. I engage in my usual set of hobbies... I don’t see any need for improvement.”
There was also a subtle resistance to being “organised.” Many described a preference for casual, natural interactions over structured community-building efforts - they valued belonging but not obligation.
Control over the everyday
A final thread that ran through many interviews was a deep attachment to the rhythms of everyday life — the walks, the garden, the quiet rituals of daily independence. When thinking about future living arrangements, participants were less worried about medical care (which they trusted they’d sort if needed) and more concerned with maintaining their everyday identity.
This included a desire to keep doing the things they enjoyed, in a way that suited them — whether that was cooking from scratch, walking the dog, or popping to the shops. The smallest habits were often described as the most meaningful. And there was a quiet determination not to lose them.
“I walk a lot every day, I swim in the sea every day, and I play golf, which I want to continue.”
“We want the freedom to go and do as we want.”
Any setting that threatened to take away these freedoms - through regimentation, overbearing routines or too much “togetherness” - was viewed with deep caution.
source: Boomer + beyond_Living well later_qualitative research study_2024