I have just been reading another article talking about how the price of retirement flats drops when they come back on the market after the person who bought it new either dies or moves into care

I can’t think of anything worse. Retirement living and waiting to die.

Purplepixie

I can’t think of anything worse. Retirement living and waiting to die.

Except that they’re not! Have you ever visited one? No, well until you have you cannot say that. Far from waiting to die, they enjoy friends, meals, entertainment and family nearby. No upkeep of old houses and gardens, no worries at all really.

A retirement property here is on the market for £85k after being purchased for £175k in 2023. Still no takers and this is not the only one. Another's one on the market for £60k. Wouldn't touch them with a barge pole

There is a complex near me where a friend lives. She leads a very active life, as do most of the residents. It is on a bus route with a small shop nearby too. Management fees are very reasonable but there is no guarantee that residents won’t ever have to contribute more for a major cost eg roof repairs. So that is an uncertainty as well as the rising costs each year, with no ceiling.
That doesn’t explain why new places sell better than older ones, but this complex has fairly quick turnovers.

I’m putting my father’s retirement flat on the market tomorrow after eight months of battling HMCE and Probate.
It’s not a McCarthy & Stone type of development, just a privately built block in a village centre with fees of around £400 pcm. Dad refused point blank to rent so I’m stuck with the fallout.
He bought coming out of Covid when prices were high so I’ve always accepted that I’d be selling at a loss and tbh if it covers the IHT I’ll be happy.
The estate agent I’m using has sold the few flats that have changed hands since dad bought his so I’m confident that it will go eventually.
I have considered renting it out but my three adult children do not want to have to sort it out when I pop my clogs.
Having said all that… it really was the best thing for dad when he lived there. He’d been very isolated before and appreciated what it offered. If I never see it again it will be too soon.

I think the Management and other fees on Retirement and other plays is a racket. And a real earner for the companies who manage them.

Somebody should look into this. It's long overdue.

This spell checker gets worse by the minute. Should say flats not plays.

I don’t want to buy one as I’ve seen what they are like to live in. Mil moved into one at 88 years old and had 4 lovely years there. They are great places for a certain generation which is now dwindling due to death. But now I’m widowed and no family, and getting on in years, that type of living style just doesn’t appeal. I like my quasi invisibility living in my terrace with its death trap stairs, I don’t want to acknowledge I’m getting older and what my later years of existence might be. I’m the latch key gen x generation of independence. The close knit, being kept an eye on and do what’s socially expected of you, just isn’t for me. Nor, is it for a lot of similar aged/circumstances female friends. The living model just doesn’t suit us.

Leasehold v freehold problem
Leasehold is always problematic

But WHY do people not want o buy these flats on the resale market.

New or resale these flats are not my choice but i have friends living in them who are very happy. But as I said, they sell new, why don't they sell on resale?

Silvershadow

My DH and his brother sold his mother’s McCarthy and Stone flat at half what his mother paid for it, bought from new. The whole saga lasted nearly three years. They rented it out to cover the fees which were still payable despite her death because they couldn’t sell it. They feel very lucky to have sold it now. Hindsight is a wonderful thing but we have said we would only move into one ourselves if we rented. We wouldn’t want our own kids having this problem.

This is what my Mum and Dad did. They rent from the company who owns the complex, but trying to get repairs done is stressful. They were without a shower for weeks and washing with a bucket before it was fixed. The flat above had a water leak that came through the kitchen ceiling knocking out the light. That took weeks to fix. The blinds in the living room have deteriorated because they get sun most of the day. Oh, we have given those to the tenants, so that’s your problem.

Chocolatelovinggran I was in the same position. Took 3 years to sell godmothers flat in an affluent part of London. I let it out to a retired couple, the return was handsome.

I was given to understand depending on your income and savings u can claim housing benefit for service charges

M0nica

But WHY do people not want o buy these flats on the resale market.

New or resale these flats are not my choice but i have friends living in them who are very happy. But as I said, they sell new, why don't they sell on resale?

(Leasehold on my local McCarthy and Stone was 999 years from its building).

I think this depends on location, tbh. How many comparable properties available in any given area. And - how nice different flats are as situated within the building.

Compare for example the 3rd floor sunny with a nice view Juliet balcony one with the ground floor north facing too near the busy back bits. Which do you think goes quickly and which takes longer to resell.

Silvershadow

Purplepixie

I can’t think of anything worse. Retirement living and waiting to die.

Except that they’re not! Have you ever visited one? No, well until you have you cannot say that. Far from waiting to die, they enjoy friends, meals, entertainment and family nearby. No upkeep of old houses and gardens, no worries at all really.

YES! I have been to several, thank you! My mother in law lived in a one and also my aunt and uncle. I went along with them while they chose the ones they wanted and I hated everything about them. So don’t say NO because you don’t know me!

Well your relatives might have been waiting to die Purplepixie but ours were not.

And you don’t know us!

My MiL and all her friends, 90 residents, were totally happy in their retirement home which my mil likened to a hotel.

One size doesn’t fit all. Yours and you might have hated it but not everyone did/does.

Re-reading what I wrote earlier, one reason why new ones sell better than older ones could be that they are in theory less likely to need major repairs, eg a new roof, the cost of which would be split between the flat owners.
My friend pays quite a low maintenance charge which covers the warden (who no longer lives on site) and the groundsmen, and communal facilities, with a portion going into the funds for minor repairs, but the company would expect residents to stump up for major expenses, an unknown figure.

MOnica, sometimes people do want to buy 'pre -loved' apartments. The choice of the first buyer (s) matters enormously. Many will prefer to buy the apartments with views, balconies, facing south or west and not overlooked. The mistake, I think, is to buy any flat within the complex, whether it's small, dark and without any outside space, just to be part of the sheltered community. Later on, the more desirable ones are much more likely to re-sell, rather than the pokey dark ones.
I have a friend who bought a new apartment some years ago. It was lovely; light, bright and well designed. She sold it on recently and made a profit of £125,000. Her family has moved to another town and she's moved in to another new place near them. It can be done. The principles are the same when buying property of any kind: location, aspect, outdoor space, condition, storage etc.

My mother bought a lovely spacious 2-bed retirement bungalow. In 5 years the "warden support" went up from £15 to £40 a week. The service went down from a daily walk around and social gatherings to nothing more than checking on bins and gutters etc.
When she had a fall, the alarm did not answer for an hour, by which time we had the ambulance come and gone.

It took a year to sell, and that was to another owner from Surrey trying to cut her costs, during which we had to continue to pay the charges The site manager kept taking my viewers to other homes for sale that she would get commission on.
A number of her neighbours were renting from heirs unable to sell.
Having said that, the charges did cover all buildings insurance, garden maintenance, external repairs and replacements (e.g. all the doors and windows were upgraded and communal carpets replaced).

You have to be aware the level of care offered. To offer "independent living" means you are not interfered with and live your own life until and unless you buy into greater levels of care either from within the place or outside sources.

They are not care homes and people who go to the one I know go out and about into the world with their cars if stillpossible just as if they lived alone in a house but with the security of 24/7 management.

Remember people you meet there may still be 94 and still a with us and bright as a button but cant care for a house but want company and no worries on living alone and maintenance unwanted callers/ thieves, or to cook if they dont want to decide that morning. It allows a situation as pointed out above where you can stay a lot longer than isolated with responsibilities at home before care home options necessary.

My friend who lived there died at 90 and had she been at home would have been straight to a care home well before then. It took the pressures of both her and her son, family visits were outings not desperate practicalities to sort.

I dint want to do that to my family and would be scared and isolated. "Staying ing my ow house" is not actually a priority for some of us. But I do my research well and if the place has gone downhill its a no, but tbh becuase we dont have excessive places the flats both do sell, but also have to keep up to the mark as regards care.

The service charges are to deliver the upkeep of the whole building and all the facilities, fresh new carpets, decent food (a good lunch a fiver) and thats why they are high.

local McCarthy and Stone has a 5 - yes 5 star - trust pilot rating currently If this remains then it's a green light at some undetermined point. Check out the 4581 reviews

We are all different?

Silvershadow

Well your relatives might have been waiting to die Purplepixie but ours were not.

And you don’t know us!

My MiL and all her friends, 90 residents, were totally happy in their retirement home which my mil likened to a hotel.

One size doesn’t fit all. Yours and you might have hated it but not everyone did/does.

I’m so happy for you and your relatives. We are not all the same. Have a lovely evening.

My parents live in a small retirement complex. They are much sought after and don’t stay on the market for long.

Wyllow3

You have to be aware the level of care offered. To offer "independent living" means you are not interfered with and live your own life until and unless you buy into greater levels of care either from within the place or outside sources.

They are not care homes and people who go to the one I know go out and about into the world with their cars if stillpossible just as if they lived alone in a house but with the security of 24/7 management.

Remember people you meet there may still be 94 and still a with us and bright as a button but cant care for a house but want company and no worries on living alone and maintenance unwanted callers/ thieves, or to cook if they dont want to decide that morning. It allows a situation as pointed out above where you can stay a lot longer than isolated with responsibilities at home before care home options necessary.

My friend who lived there died at 90 and had she been at home would have been straight to a care home well before then. It took the pressures of both her and her son, family visits were outings not desperate practicalities to sort.

I dint want to do that to my family and would be scared and isolated. "Staying ing my ow house" is not actually a priority for some of us. But I do my research well and if the place has gone downhill its a no, but tbh becuase we dont have excessive places the flats both do sell, but also have to keep up to the mark as regards care.

The service charges are to deliver the upkeep of the whole building and all the facilities, fresh new carpets, decent food (a good lunch a fiver) and thats why they are high.

local McCarthy and Stone has a 5 - yes 5 star - trust pilot rating currently If this remains then it's a green light at some undetermined point. Check out the 4581 reviews

We are all different?

Yes, but why don't resale flats sell? Everything you have written applies to all flats whether bought new, or on the resale market.

I'm trying to tell you, yes there is a resale problem with some of the flats I know but it *does depend where they are and how nice inside and how such competition in the area for flats.

But...in general here, the housing market its admittedly very very slow indeed.

Of course it's a huge problem - one can only attempt to minimise it. I do think some legislation around what they can charge relatives for an empty flat actually is more than appropriate, given that they have often helped the one who had left buy the flat in the first place

(ie, the reduction in your own house value if you use their help by them selling your house for you and moving you and giving you time to do that, they have cashed in there so....

And they do have some people over a barrel when there is a crisis and the new buyer is desperate and will pay up as they need to move, as opposed to a planned move and beating them down on the price - and, remember, they have to persuade the family selling it to accept a lower price than they had hoped.

Actually a big yes to forcing them not to charge a lot when the flat is empty, as they have no motivation to try and feel quickly, do they?

Families are often better off selling through an estate agency - but being realistic.