There are good reasons why my wife and I have a low-maintenance condominium with a large roof terrace and didn’t buy a plot of land to run wild on. Since birth, I have been 80% severely disabled and am simply not able to cut a hedge. So that this burden doesn’t fall entirely on my wife, we organized ourselves early on so that our living space fits our life.
I can understand that, even quite independently of the limitation. I wouldn’t expect my son to spend his free weekends in 40 years cutting my hedge or mowing my lawn. Such expectations seem very outdated to me. If I can’t or don’t want to do it myself later, and can’t afford to have it done, I think I would rather sell and downsize than see my son obliged to do it. I hope we get concepts here as nice as those currently emerging in New Zealand, for example. There are entire apartment districts built age-appropriately. Each party keeps their own apartment, available in different sizes, but the complexes also have common rooms and shared kitchens. Moreover, there is a supermarket and other daily necessities shops on the premises and great connections to public transport. Together with wonderful outdoor areas. I find these "Elderly Villages" really, really great and forward-looking. They have absolutely no nursing home vibe anymore. I could well imagine moving into something like that later. Whether it’s affordable, however, is another matter.