Retirement home

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A retirement home – sometimes called an old people's home,^[1] old folks' home,^[2] or old age home, although old people's home can also refer to a nursing home^[3] – is a multi-residence housing facility intended for the elderly. Typically, each person or couple in the home has an apartment-style room or suite of rooms with an en-suite bathroom. Additional facilities are provided within the building. This can include facilities for meals, gatherings, recreation activities, and some form of health or hospital care.^[4] A place in a retirement home can be paid for on a rental basis, like an apartment, or can be bought in perpetuity on the same basis as a condominium.^[5]

A retirement home differs from a nursing home primarily in the level of medical care given. Retirement communities, unlike retirement homes, offer separate and autonomous homes for residents.

Retirement homes offer meal-making and some personal care services.^[6] Assisted living facilities, memory care facilities and nursing homes can all be referred to as retirement homes. The cost of living in a retirement home varies from $25,000 to $100,000 per year, although it can exceed this range, according to Senior Living Near Me's senior housing guide.^[7]

In the United Kingdom, there were about 750,000 places across 25,000 retirement housing schemes in 2021 with a forecast that numbers would grow by nearly 10% over the next five years.^[8]