Recognising an increasing demand for retirees wanting to downsize, Trent Ottowa’s Gateway Lifestyle manufactures homes off-site and then relocates them on vacant blocks in residential parks.

"The demand has been more than we could have imagined," said Ottawa.

Releasing capital from their family homes, retirees buy a Gateway home in “the order of 50-60 per cent of what you could buy the equivalent for on a normal residential transaction; that's how the affordability comes into it," he said.

"So what we're finding is a lot of (retirees) may be asset rich, in so far as they have their house, but they don't have a lot of cash in the bank," he says.

"They come to us and get a house that's a more manageable size for them for half the price.” The new homeowners then have extra cash for holidays or spending on grand kids.

Gateway Lifestyle has acquired eight residential parks in four years and has built another 1700 homes on parks owned independently.