Abstract:
This research aimed to study the characteristics of retirement villages and migration factors
that affected the Australian seniors decision to buy a retirement home in Thailand. This study was a
survey research using a seven-point Likert scale questionnaire. The data were collected from the sample
group of 822 Australian seniors, and they were divided into 2 groups. The first group was Australian
seniors who had never lived in Thailand and the second group was Australian seniors who had been
long-term residents in Thailand. Descriptive statistics were used to describe the significance level of
various factor variables and logistic regression analysis was used to test the relationship among various
factors that affected decision making to buy a retirement home or to migrate to Thailand. The regression
equation was used to estimate or predict the dependent variables. Empirical research found that the
characteristics of retirement villages were correlated with the Australian seniors decision making to buy
a home of the retirement village. Overall, environmental characteristics within the village, location &
site, and the central facilities of the village affected the Australian seniors decision making to buy a
home of the retirement village. Characteristics of home and living space, exterior design features,
environment within the village, location & site affected the decision to buy a retirement village of
Australian seniors who had long stay in Thailand while the home characteristics of the retirement village
did not affect the decision to buy a retirement village for Australian seniors who had never had long stay
in Thailand.
In terms of overseas migration factors, they were not correlated with the overall Australian
seniors tendency to migrate abroad for retirement. However, migration factors were correlated with the
tendency to decide to migrate abroad for retirement of Australian seniors who had not stayed long in
Thailand. They were also correlated with the tendency to migrate abroad for retirement of Australian
seniors who had long-term stay in Thailand. The factors that were related to the tendency to migrate
were the attraction factors. In addition, it has been found that the decision to migrate abroad was
correlated to the Australian seniors decision to buy a home in the retirement village.