Retirement Villages · Bridgewater, Somerset West, Somerset West & Helderberg
Faircape life right village of 140 cottages and apartments in Somerset West, with a daily clinic and direct access to Faircape Health frail care.
Retirement Villages · Somerset West & Helderberg
Independent living run by the non-profit Helderberg Society for the Aged.
Retirement Villages · Somerset West & Helderberg
Evergreen village inside Sitari Country Estate with retirement suites, new two-bedroom houses and a 10-bed healthcare centre staffed 24/7.
Retirement Villages · Somerset West & Helderberg
Large, long-established retirement village at the foot of the Helderberg, with Homeleigh Nursing Services on site: frail care, dementia care and sub-acute beds.
Retirement Villages · Somerset West & Helderberg
Faircape Life retirement village in Somerset West, with residents able to use Faircape Health care services.
Local knowledge
The Helderberg basin has more retirement villages than almost anywhere else in the country, which is why so many semigrating families start here. Mediclinic Vergelegen and Helderberg Hospital are in Somerset West, shopping is easy, and Cape Town International is roughly 30 minutes away on the N2.
The range is wide: large lifestyle estates with golf and clubhouses, smaller church-linked villages, and stand-alone frail care centres. Strand and Gordon's Bay are usually cheaper than Somerset West itself.
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
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.