By Caroline Zielinski

Copyright theage

“Our daughter had lived there, we knew all about it,” Webster said. “It ticks all the boxes: has all the major supermarkets and department stores, a world-leading haematologist, great health facilities, award-winning restaurants and is surrounded by vineyards and orchards.”

Webster looked up some houses in the area, went there a week later and bought one. “The climate is fantastic … it’s just bucolic,” she said.

Citro managing director Toby Ellis said the platform had assessed about 300 regional communities on the criteria of housing affordability and availability, access to healthcare, transport infrastructure and lifestyle opportunities to rank the 50 best areas for retirees.

“We took Cotality data and then used our own expertise and logic to create … that assessment criteria we think is reasonable or important for people looking to retire,” he said.