With regular horror stories emerging about appalling treatment in aged care homes, many people approaching retirement are re-assessing how they want to live.

Enterprising baby boomers are turning to co-housing to avoid the conventional retirement communities that were often the only option for their parents.

Frustrated by a lack of choice and wishing to remain independent, Keryn Curtis and a group of friends in their 50s are pooling their wealth and skill sets to design a unique retirement living situation.

"It's an idea that everyone has at a dinner party where they say, 'When I get to 50, 60, we're going to club together and build our own bespoke retirement village'," the 53-year-old told 7.30.

"We'll live together and support each other."

The friends decided to turn the idea into reality. Five years ago they formed The AGEncy Project to plan a purpose-built apartment complex in Sydney's inner west.

Members of the AGEncy group, Keryn Curtis, Rick Gates, Margot Woods, Guy Luscombe, Astrid Gates and David Scandol. ( ABC News: Tom Hancock )

As part of their vision, up to 30 residents would have their own apartment but benefit from communal facilities such as a shared kitchen, mini cinema, rooftop garden and consulting rooms for GPs and physiotherapists.

Most importantly, it would take shape how and when they liked, on their own terms.

"I want to move before I am forced to move," Margot Woods said.

The 56-year-old is a local GP and another driving force behind the project.

"We want to find people who will design the apartment block from the ground up, something that suits us and the way we want to live together."

They have architect Guy Luscombe on board and are looking for an appropriate site to build their future home nearby. Their deadline is 2032.

"We want to be the vanguard, to say we are spearheading this," Mr Luscombe said.

"We want to be a pilot project and learn from those mistakes and replicate it for other people so it becomes easier for others to do."

'A mix of privacy and a sense of community'

Housing researcher Dr Chris Riedy says share houses for seniors is a viable idea. ( ABC News: Tracy Bowden )

It is estimated by 2050, more than 25 per cent of the Australian population will be 65 or older.

Like the AGEncy group, this new crop of retirees would be fitter and wealthier than previous generations and not willing to settle for second best.

Chris Riedy, a co-housing researcher at the University of Technology Sydney, said most ageing boomers — the first generation born after World War II — wanted to downsize but did not want to be isolated from the broader community.

With an emphasis on social interaction, environmental sustainability and accessible design, he said the AGEncy's model was viable.

"You are not sharing everything, it is not like going back to the dorms or share houses of your past," Professor Riedy told 7.30.

"It is about having this mix of privacy and a sense of community."

He said it was also a solution to housing affordability as people aged.

"When you pool your resources to develop a co-housing building then you might get more bang for your buck than doing that individually."

Co-housing, though well-established in northern Europe and more recently in the US, is a relatively new concept in Australia.

While many might like the sound of co-housing, the reality is few people are actually able to make it happen.

"Right now there is no road map for how to develop something like co-housing, people don't know where to start," Professor Riedy said.

"There are regulatory hurdles, legal hurdles, there's securing land, so there's a lot of barriers to overcome."

Meet the Shedders

Sorry, this video has expired Heather and Rick Bolstler share a house with two other couples.

One group that managed to overcome those barriers was the Shedders on the New South Wales mid-north coast — named after the first structure on the country property they bought and built their house on.

It may have taken the best part of a decade, including a trial run share-housing in Sydney, but this group of three couples are now living out their retirement dream.

Eve Grzybowski, 72, her husband Daniel Weinstein, 68, and four friends, said the support and encouragement they gave each other was beyond anything they would find in an aged care facility.

"Judy, Heather and I have been through major surgeries, and Michael had a knee problem," Ms Grzybowski told 7.30.

"When you go through major surgery like that, you are bed-bound and it's much nicer to have people in the house that will come visit you and bring you cups of tea, read you stories."

The home belonging to the six Shedders. ( ABC News: Tracy Bowden )

Though supportive of the trend, Council of The Ageing president Ian Yates advised interested parties to do their research before taking the plunge.

"They need to look carefully at how they set it up financially and legally because they have to contemplate what happens if some of them fall out," he told 7.30.

"What happens if the happy band of friends have disagreements in later life? Or even other family circumstances that mean they need to separate themselves off from the group?"

The Shedders had already tackled those sensitive issues.

They have an "exit agreement" which covers the legalities around the death or departure of a member.

Should any of the group wish to die at home, they pledged to care for one another "to the end".