The Heritage Village, a purpose-built senior living community in Co Laois, has welcomed its first residents.
The development at Killenard, when completed, will be made up of over 160 homes and a community hub.
It will provide a range of supports from medical care to home maintenance.
47 units are already completed with several homes already occupied.
It is hoped construction will be completed by the end of 2027.
The development consists of 66 detached two-bedroom homes and 98 one and two-bedroom courtyard homes.
It is is located within a five minute drive of Portarlington Railway Station.
"I like to use the term senior living development," said Maurice Harrington, Sales Manager at Heritage Village.
"The number of people who are living here already are not retired, they are still working.
"What makes a difference here is that to be to be a resident in Heritage Village, you must be over 55 years of age.
"So we're not catering for families. We're catering for people who are may be looking towards the later years in their lives," he added.
The houses start at €325,000 and go up to €495,000. Mr Harrington said they have received enquiries from across Ireland and further afield.
"I'm getting enquiries from all parts of Ireland and from abroad as well, from America, South Africa and Australia," he said.
"The majority are people either downsizing or looking for less stress in their lives.
"People are looking at the social activities as well as physical activities, which are all on site here."
The village hub, which is under construction, will accommodate a gym, a café and restaurant, a cinema and a library.
Everything outside the houses, including gardens and window cleaning, will be looked after by village management.
"We're here to support people if they need that, both medically, physically and from the point of view of house maintenance," said Mr Harrington.
"If any little jobs need doing, or anything like that, we're here."
Project modelled on developments in Australia and New Zealand
This new senior living village is modelled on the success of similar projects in Australia and New Zealand.
In Australia, there are some 2,200 retirement communities where the evidence shows that residents live longer healthier and more active lifestyles.
Around 13% of the population in Australia and New Zealand live in retirement villages.
For new resident Marian Dillon, security and peace of mind was a huge factor as well the community aspect to the village.
She, along with her partner, moved from a four-bedroom dormer bungalow in Co Westmeath to Killenard, downsizing to a two-bedroom house in the new development.
"As you go forward in your senior years, you look for facilities, things like, instead of having to drive everywhere, is there a bus?" said the 72-year-old.
"Here we have a bus, a local link bus, that passes the gate about three times a day and the train station is nearby.
"We have lovely walks, the hotel is on our doorstep.
"Security was a big thing for us too. It is a gated community, which is great and what also really attracted me to this place is the community aspect.
"As I go forward in my senior years, I would still like to be able to keep up my social contacts, that's very important to me."
Ms Dillon said as most people age, they think they will end up in a nursing home.
"That's where most of us think we'll end up," she said.
"So this is a complete new concept, the whole idea is to live as independently as you can with all the facilities and the supports that you need as you go forward into your senior years.
"It's important that we live comfortably and enjoy life after working so hard," she added.
Ireland 'late to the party'
In the next ten years, its estimated that there will be more over-65's living on the island of Ireland, than under-18's.
"As you age, your world tends to get smaller if you don't have an environment where you can engage and be part of life, and a development like this ensures that you've got a new friendship group, you've got activities, you've got an opportunity to be social and engaging," said Darina Dunne, Chairperson of the Irish Physical Activity Alliance.
"And that is really important in terms of your long-term health, in terms of your cognitive awareness, so it allows you to be medically fitter and healthier, but it also allows you to have a really good quality of life, and that's really important.
"In Ireland, unfortunately, we have two options. You can live independently, or you go into a nursing home.
"We're really missing out on that, that middle tier that allows people to recognise that we have an extra ten to fifteen years in our lives, now let's make that as good and healthy as enjoyable and possible, and communities like this allow that."
Referring to the number of these type developments in other parts of the world, Ms Dunne said Ireland "is late to the party."
"They have them all over the world and because people are living longer we really need to ensure that that quality of life is maintained, and people need to avoid, where possible, or delay going into a nursing home," she said.
"At life stages, things change, you need additional support, and something like this allows you to have a really full life."
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