Can Housing Design Ease Loneliness?

Originally posted on Land Lease Communities Summit on 30 April 2026

Loneliness is often framed as a personal failing. Sometimes treated as a technological side effect, sometimes a mental-health issue – but rarely as a result of housing design. In the Western world, post-war prosperity and suburbanisation normalised the nuclear family. As a result, multigenerational homes gradually declined. 

By the late 1940s, families living under one roof became less necessary and, for many, less desirable. Privacy and autonomy evolved into cultural ideals and living with parents became increasingly stigmatised as failure. Meanwhile, welfare states replaced dependency with pensions, healthcare systems and elderly support.

Today, however, multigenerational living is seeing a partial resurgence. As housing and childcare costs continue to rise, and ageing parents need increased support, homeownership is delayed. In other words: economic growth weakened multigenerational living, but economic pressure is reviving it.

But it’s too simplistic to revert to a world many of us never knew. After nearly a century of individualism, it has become a deeply ingrained cultural expectation. Many people have tasted privacy, so having elderly parents move in is not only impractical, but emotionally uncomfortable. But it goes both ways: for many older people, the disruption of peace is non-negotiable and, after years of independence, they do not want to be seen as a burden.

So where does this leave us? We have homes that are too large for ageing people, not enough homes for working people, and a social gap where loneliness grows as community thins.

As Australia’s population ages, the challenge is not how to house people for longer, but how to keep them meaningfully connected to society. For developers like Tao Bourton, CEO and Founder of Everland Communities, the answer lies in designing new forms of living that integrate generations and ease isolation. 

According to Bourton, over-55s are now one of the most important demand forces in Australian property. “The growth rate of over-55s is now faster than immigration and birth rate combined. It’s the biggest growing property sector in Australia.” This changes the equation for developers. Land lease communities are no longer a niche retirement product; they are becoming a practical response to structural demographic change. 

The Intergenerational Dividend

As family life becomes more geographically fragmented, older people remain one of the most underused forms of social infrastructure. Grandparents often provide childcare, emotional continuity and practical support that no public system can fully replace, creating both social and economic value. 

“Purpose is a good thing,” says Bourton. “Movement, getting out, socialising, being tested, getting the brain working – it is so well documented.” Ageing does not have to mean disappearance, and integration helps keep people capable, useful and socially engaged for longer. 

According to Bourton, proximity is highly desired. “Families already ask whether children or grandchildren can move into adjoining residential areas, which is a sign that many households still value nearness, even if they no longer want to live under one roof.”

Connection by Design

Traditional retirement villages were designed to solve three practical problems: safety, support and downsizing. But Bourton argues they fail to create connections. “A lot of retirement villages are not interconnected. They’re kind of like, ‘I’ll put them over there.’ They’re not necessarily interwoven into the fabric of the community.” 

While offering many attractive amenities, retirement villages are detached from the rhythm of ordinary life: children walking past, neighbours heading to the shops, younger families nearby, spontaneous conversation, and the visible movement of a functioning neighbourhood. 

“It’s all about increasing that chance encounter,” says Bourton – the small, unplanned interactions that most people barely notice until they disappear. Shared clubhouses, a quick chat outside the shops, waving to someone across the road, recognising a familiar face at the café, bumping into a neighbour on a walk – these are all moments that can be encouraged with good design. 

The art is to not make interactions feel forced or intrusive, it must be optional sociability: privacy when wanted, connection when needed. “It should be as social as you want to be,” says Bourton. The appeal, in his view, lies in the ability to join in when desired, and retreat when not. This is perhaps more important than a list of easily marketable amenities. “The point is not luxury,” he says. “It is frictionless social contact,” and it shouldn’t be limited to other retirees. 

Rather than excluding older generations from mainstream residential areas, well-designed land lease models position themselves alongside everyday community life. Over 55s today are fit, active, and continuing to contribute to society. People benefit from being around different generations, routines and perspectives, so why not continue to embed them into the community? 

Inside Everland’s Integrated Communities 

At Everland’s Embark Busselton, the land lease community sits beside a broader residential neighbourhood and town-centre environment. Rather than hiding retirement living behind a separate boundary, the design places residents within sight of everyday activity. 

“You can be sitting there drinking a coffee and you can see the grandkids,” explains Bourton. “You’ve got a playground across the road, childcare, a supermarket, pharmacy, medical.” Subtle but significant, a retiree is not merely occupying a home; they are remaining visually and socially connected to the world outside.

At Arbour Margaret River, the integration goes further. Combining around 400 residential house-and-land lots with a 250-home land lease community, Bourton says the development is the first-of-its-kind in Australia.

However, the model is not without limits. Integrated communities require available land and planning systems that allow for large, mixed-use developments. Recreating that model in denser urban areas is difficult, particularly where land is scarce and housing is already expensive. As Bourton puts it, “It’s hard to get sites. It’s hard to get planning approval.”

Despite its challenges, finding a viable solution to housing an ageing population is imperative. Older people do not simply need somewhere safe to live – they need somewhere they feel connected to, and a place their family genuinely wants to visit. “These land lease resorts are fun,” explains Bourton. “Kids want to go over to their grandparents to watch a movie in the cinema with popcorn, jump in the pool, and four hours later their parents pick them up and they’re like, ‘That was epic. I went to a resort.’”

Shaping Behaviour

While housing design can shape behaviour, it cannot abolish loneliness entirely. No amount of intelligent masterplanning can guarantee friendship, family closeness or meaningful community – but it can intensify loneliness through separation, or design against it through visibility, routine contact and the chance to remain part of everyday life.

Ageing societies don’t need more beds, units or care infrastructure – they need spaces that make ordinary human contact easier, more natural and more frequent. That is what makes integrated land lease communities interesting. They suggest a different model for later life that does not condemn them to withdrawal from the world, but a continued presence within it.

The challenge now is not to recreate the past, but to build new forms of proximity that suit the way people live today.

Tao will be sharing more insights at the 2026 Land Lease Communities Summit. View the brochure for details on his session and the full agenda.