The trade body the Association of Retirement Community Operators announced yesterday that ground rents are “not essential” in retirement housing and it backs the government in ending them.
The announcement directly contradicts McCarthy and Stone and Churchill. Both have argued that they need ground rents for the viability of retirement housing projects and without them supply will diminish.
ARCO’s announcement was made yesterday at the House of Lords where the trade body launched a report to encourage an expanded housing-with-care market.
ARCO’s stand on ground rents was echoed by Legal and General, the insurance giant that bought Inspired Villages (£40 million) and Renaissance Villages (£51 million) last year. It is an ARCO member
Phil Bayliss, L&G’s head of later living, said: “We are removing ground rents and looking at other forms of tenure: 125-year lease purchases by those in their late seventies are an absurd form of tenure.”
Here is why ground rents are so important in retirement housing to these builders:
Pensioners hammered with 88% rise in ground rents – Better Retirement Housing
Often in sites with dismal resale values Thousands of pensioners living in older retirement properties are facing a massive hike in ground rents: 88 per cent is not unusual. The older leases of mass retirement housing builder McCarthy and Stone are kicking in with huge hikes in ground rents.
Full report on BetterRetirementHousing.com
ARCO snubs McCarthy and Stone / Churchill by saying there is no need for ground rents – Better Retirement Housing
The trade body the Association of Retirement Community Operators announced yesterday that ground rents are “not essential” in retirement housing and it backs the government in ending them. The announcement directly contradicts McCarthy and Stone and Churchill. Both have argued that they need ground rents for the viability of retirement housing projects and without them …
ARCO code of practice
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Churchill Retirement donates £150,000 to Conservatives. To retain ground rents, by any chance?
McCarthy and Stone and Churchill: are you blackmailing government over the ground rent ban and is your business model broken? Asks BBC R4 MoneyBox
Our ground rents are fair, says McCarthy and Stone (even though they go up to £600 and are for no service whatsoever)
APPG July 11: The case for ground rents from McCarthy and Stone
McCarthy and Stone says ground rents essential, but why sell freeholds to murky Adriatic Land?
National Leasehold Campaign tops 10,000 members on its first anniversary
Well done ARCO – but do you have teerth?
Well done ARCO, but do you have teeth – it’s a dangerous world out there!