Aussie retirees in search of affordable homes turning to trailer parks

Sydney

JOHN Purnell, 75, and his wife Patricia, 72, moved into a factory-built house in a converted trailer park west of Sydney this year, eschewing traditional retirement communities and other homes in the area.

"Retirement villages are quite expensive," Patricia, a former payroll clerk at a seniors facility, said in an interview in their A$254,000 (S$281,500) 160-square-metre air-conditioned home, which features built-in wardrobes, a separate laundry cupboard and a carport. Nearby houses had minimum price tags of about A$350,000 and needed a further A$50,000 of work, she said.