Retirement Villages · Edenvale / Lyndhurst, Bedfordview, Edenvale & the East Rand
Rand Aid's 223-unit life-right village on 13 hectares beside the Jukskei, with cottages and apartments for over-65s and the Ron Smith Care Centre on the same property.
Retirement Villages · Lyndhurst, Bedfordview, Edenvale & the East Rand
Rand Aid life-right village on 20 hectares with a greenbelt, dams and a clubhouse, offering one-bedroom apartments to three-bedroom cottages for over-65s.
Retirement Villages · Bedfordview, Edenvale & the East Rand
Established Bedfordview retirement village with apartments and cottages for independent and supported living, close to Eastgate and Life Bedford Gardens.
Retirement Villages · Edenvale, Bedfordview, Edenvale & the East Rand
Rand Aid's rental village on 10 hectares, linked to Elphin Lodge by a footbridge, with studio and one-bedroom apartments for over-65s who prefer not to buy a life right.
Retirement Villages · Modderfontein, Bedfordview, Edenvale & the East Rand
Rand Aid life-right village in Modderfontein with two- and three-bedroom cottages, landscaped gardens and a conservation area next door for walks.
Retirement Villages · Witfield, Boksburg, Bedfordview, Edenvale & the East Rand
Trans-50's longest-running village, open since 1970 in Boksburg, with flats and single rooms, a care centre, memory care rooms and home care, run by a non-profit.
Local knowledge
The east of Johannesburg is the province's retirement heartland. The non-profit Rand Aid Association runs four life-right villages and two large care centres on and around Modderfontein Road, including Elphin Lodge with 223 units and the 160-bed Ron Smith Care Centre with a dedicated dementia wing. Trans-50's Witfield Park in Boksburg has been running since 1970, and Bedfordview has St George's Village and the Casa Serena Italian home. Few areas in the country offer this much choice at middle-income prices.
Medical care is close: Life Bedford Gardens, Netcare Linksfield, Life The Glynnwood in Benoni, Netcare Sunward Park in Boksburg and the provincial Edenvale Hospital. OR Tambo International is 15 to 25 minutes away, which makes the area the most practical in the country for a parent whose children fly in from Cape Town, Durban or abroad.
Expect older, well-run villages rather than resort estates, long waiting lists at the Rand Aid villages (a refundable deposit secures a place on the list), and some of the most affordable frail care in a major city at Thembalami. Our retirement village costs in Gauteng guide explains how the life-right refunds work here.
A retirement village is a secure community of houses, cottages or apartments for independent older people. Most have a clubhouse, a dining room or coffee shop, maintained gardens and 24-hour security, and many add a frail care centre so residents can move into care later without leaving.
Questions families ask
Elphin Lodge, Thornhill Manor, Inyoni Creek and Glendower sell life rights to people aged 65 and over, and Tarentaal rents studios and one-bedroom apartments. You join a primary waiting list with a refundable deposit of R5,000 (R2,500 for Tarentaal). Residents get priority admission to the Ron Smith and Thembalami care centres and 24 days a year of recuperative care.
Thembalami Care Centre in Lombardy East is run as Rand Aid's affordable care centre with single and double rooms. Church and community homes in Benoni, Boksburg and Germiston also take residents on the state pension, usually with a waiting list.
About 15 minutes to OR Tambo International from Bedfordview and Edenvale, and 20 to 25 minutes from Lyndhurst and Modderfontein.
You pay a once-off amount for the right to live in a unit for life. You do not own it. When the right ends, the village resells it and repays an amount set out in your agreement, which may be a fixed share of the original price or of the resale price. These schemes are regulated by the Housing Development Schemes for Retired Persons Act.
Most villages set a minimum age, commonly between 50 and 60. Check with the village, because the rules differ and some allow a younger spouse.