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You are here: Home / Latest News / Campaign against Residential Leasehold Exploitation reveals abysmal retirement housing re-sale values

Campaign against Residential Leasehold Exploitation reveals abysmal retirement housing re-sale values

September 5, 2016 //  by Sebastian O'Kelly

Retirement housing values at Risingholme Court have plummeted since it was built by McCarthy and Stone in 2007. One flat has fallen in value by £164,188 in seven years
Retirement housing values at Risingholme Court have plummeted since it was built by McCarthy and Stone in 2007. One flat has fallen in value by £164,188 in seven years

Campaign against Residential Leasehold Exploitation examines official re-sale prices for McCarthy and Stone, Churchill Retirement Living, Audley Retirement, Retirement Villages, Retirement Security, Anchor and Pegasus


A dismal picture of retirement housing values on re-sales is revealed by LKP from figures in the Land Registry.

For years we have been saying that retirement property can be a most dubious residential property investment, and the figures on retirement housing values appear to confirm this.

In some sites retirement housing values have plummeted from new and are a fraction of what the properties were sold for by the developers.

An example is Risingholme Court, High Street, Heathfield, East Sussex, TN21 8GB, a 47-flat scheme built by McCarthy and Stone in 2007.

Here Flat 25 has collapsed from a first sale when new of £225,688 on April 29 2008 to £61,500 on November 25 2015.

That’s a loss of £164,188 in seven years.

Yet according to Rightmove the price of an average property in Heathfield is £250,322. Flat sales average £125,266, and property prices rose five per cent last year.

Other flats in the complex also show drastic falls in value, which have no connection at all to the local property market.

(All losses and gains are from the price paid when new. The figures will vary dramatically according to when the site was built.)

McCarthy&StoneValuesRisingholme Court, McCarthy and Stone, Built 2007:

  • Flat 11
    2014-08-21 £105,000
    2009-06-22 £206,950
    2008-04-29 £206,677
    Loss £101,677
  • Flat 18
    2014-09-25 £130,000
    2007-12-12 £231,950
    Loss £101,950
  • Flat 2
    2014-09-25 £160,000
    2011-04-28 £165,000
    2007-10-11 £207,321
    Loss £47,321
  • Flat 3
    2015-05-15 £140,000
    2008-11-27 £265,950
    2008-04-29 £288,462
    Loss £148,462

But the same trend is revealed in retirement housing values, in slightly less stark terms, at Dickens Court, a site of 72 flats in Margate, built by McCarthy and Stone in 2006.

Built towards the end of the property boom, every single flat is now selling for considerably less than the price paid when new.

The falls of some are close to 50 per cent.

Dickens Court, McCarthy and Stone, Built 2006:

  • Flat 11
    2016-07-12 £95,000
    2007-01-26 £143,950
    Loss: £48,950
  • Flat 14
    2015-02-05 £120,000
    2006-08-25 £198,950
    Loss: £78,950
  • Flat 17
    2015-07-31 £82,500
    2007-05-18 £158,950
    2007-01-31 £153,301
    Loss: £70,801
  • Flat 20
    2014-10-07 £77,500
    2007-08-24 £120,950
    2007-01-31 £140,544
    Loss: £63,044
  • Flat 26
    2016-03-04 £91,500
    2009-07-08 £119,950
    2007-09-07 £154,950
    2007-01-31 £154,550
    Loss: £63,050
  • Flat 60
    2015-11-27 £74,000
    2007-03-30 £159,950
    2007-01-31 £150,126
    Loss: £76,126

Another site of 43 flats chosen at random is St George’s Court, in Ferndown, Dorset, a retirement housing site that was built by McCarthy and Stone in 2001.

The relevant sales are those made in 2014 – 2016, and all show pronounced falls on the price paid for the flats when new.

St George’s Court, McCarthy and Stone, Built 2001:

  • Flat 11
    2014-07-04 £121,000
    2002-11-15 £154,450
    Loss: £33,450
  • Flat 12
    2014-08-06 £155,000
    2012-11-21 £130,000
    2002-08-01 £182,450
    Loss: £27,450
  • Flat 23
    2013-06-14 £85,000
    2008-05-15 £149,950
    2004-02-20 £178,950
    Loss: £93,950
  • Flat 27
    2014-03-10 £82,000
    2009-09-28 £82,500
    2006-08-22 £140,000
    2002-12-19 £155,450
    Loss: £73,450
  • Flat 29
    2014-06-17 £82,500
    2002-02-28 £161,950
    Loss: £78,450
  • Flat 30
    2015-12-01 £123,500
    2004-05-17 £162,500
    2002-07-12 £161,950
    Loss: £37,450
  • Flat 31
    2015-11-30 £115,000
    2004-04-02 £157,450
    Loss: £42,450
  • Flat 35
    2014-12-04 £89,000
    2006-08-04 £129,950
    2003-02-28 £148,450
    Loss: £59,450
  • Flat 36
    2015-08-03 £129,950
    2008-11-21 £145,000
    2003-01-03 £165,950
    Loss: £36,000
  • Flat 38
    2016-04-28 £105,000
    2002-09-20 £141,450
    Loss £36,450
  • Flat 39
    2016-02-19 £127,000
    2014-08-08 £87,000
    2004-06-30 £177,450
    Loss: £50,450
  • Flat 7
    2014-04-29 £103,000
    2011-03-25 £115,000
    2002-08-30 £159,450
    Loss: £56,450

But how are other retirement housing providers’ property values holding up?

ChurchillRetirementLivingChurchill Retirement Living was set up by Spencer and Clinton McCarthy, the two sons of John McCarthy, the founder of McCarthy and Stone.

The sites are managed by its own management company Millstream and there is an estate agency in the group called Stratton and King.

The results of Churchill Retirement Living’s Cornerway Lodge in Hindhead, Surrey, may seem slightly better, but then the 29 flats were built during the downturn in 2010.

At this point all UK property was keenly priced, and retirement sales were sluggish. Since 2010, property in Hindhead has increased in value markedly, with average house prices £451,717 and average price of flats £206,290.

Were Cornerway Lodge a non-retirement site we would expect prices to have increased. In some cases, they have, but there are ones that have faltered on the market.

Here are the figures of re-sales:

  • Flat 18
    2015-09-17 £275,000
    2010-11-26 £307,450
    Loss £32,450
  • Flat 22
    2014-06-24 £305,000
    2010-05-28 £344,950
    Loss £39,950
  • Flat 24
    2016-01-13 £250,000
    2012-02-20 £235,000
    Gain £15,000
  • Flat 29
    2014-10-15 £250,000
    2011-04-06 £264,450
    Loss £14,450
  • Flat 30
    2016-03-07 £246,000
    2011-05-27 £230,000
    Gain £16,000
  • Flat 8
    2015-09-22 £238,000
    2011-11-25 £218,686
    Gain £20,686

Cavendish Lodge, in Clastonbury, Somerset, a complex of 38 flats, was built by Churchill Retirement Living in 2006 at a similar time to some of the McCarthy and Stone sites above.

It was towards the end of the property boom, and all re-sales are showing negative on the initial prices paid.

  • Flat 11
    2011-02-25 £135,000
    2007-01-17 £171,950
    Loss £36,950
  • Flat 12
    2012-08-31 £120,000
    2007-08-31 £169,950
    Loss £49,950
  • Flat 18
    2012-12-20 £153,500
    2007-10-19 £215,950
    Loss £62,450
  • Flat 19
    2016-04-01 £185,000
    2006-05-31 £199,450
    Loss £14,450
  • Flat 22
    2016-06-17 £81,000
    2014-05-23 £125,000
    2010-05-28 £129,950
    Loss £48,950
  • Flat 23
    2015-11-06 £175,000
    2007-02-20 £192,950
    Loss £17,950
  • Flat 26
    2015-01-23 £137,000
    2008-02-22 £174,950
    Loss £37,950
  • Flat 29
    2014-03-25 £175,000
    2006-10-12 £204,950
    Loss £29,950
  • Flat 30
    2014-10-07 £131,000
    2010-04-30 £159,950
    Loss £28,950
  • Flat 31
    2012-05-29 £155,000
    2007-04-05 £202,950
    Loss £47,950
  • Flat 32
    2011-11-28 £175,000
    2006-11-17 £214,950
    Loss £39,950
  • Flat 35
    2014-03-07 £140,000
    2007-05-14 £141,950
    Loss £1,950
  • Flat 36
    2014-06-20 £175,000
    2012-10-25 £160,000
    2007-04-25 £192,950
    Loss £27,950
  • Flat 37
    2012-12-07 £145,000
    2007-02-28 £193,950
    Loss £48,950
  • Flat 6
    2013-10-17 £118,000
    2006-10-12 £136,950
    Loss £18,950
  • Flat 8
    2014-03-28 £175,000
    2007-01-19 £194,950
    Loss £19,950
  • Flat 9
    2015-04-17 £152,500
    2009-05-01 £149,950
    2006-10-27 £173,950
    Loss £21,450

AudleyRetirementSaleValuesAudley’s Hollins Hall in Hampsthwaite, North Yorkshire, is decidedly more upmarket than both Risingholme or Dickens Courts.

Built in 2000, it is set on the edge of the Dales in 14 acres of gardens around a Georgian country house that used to belong to the Tetley tea family.

The old mansion acts as a club house for the retirement housing 71 flats, bungalows and cottages, and there are numerous communal facilities such as swimming pool, library, restaurant and conservatory.

The values at Audley Hollins Hall appear to be more robust, but there are still unaccountable variations and some falls. This is at odds with the small local property market in Hampsthwaite, where the average price paid is £422,778. This exceeds upmarket Harrogate nearby, according to Rightmove.

Here are some examples:

Audley Hollins Hall, Audley Retirement, Built 2000

  • 4, Tetley Court
    2013-04-18 £175,000
    2008-04-09 £190,000
    2002-11-10 £210,000
    Loss: £35,000

Number 6 Tetley Court has sold five times, and on three occasions for more than the original purchase price. But it was last sold for £10,000 below the price paid for it 16 years ago.

  • 6, Tetley Court
    2015-10-16 £95,000
    2007-08-17 £165,000
    2006-11-17 £144,000
    2005-12-13 £140,000
    2001-08-01 £105,000
    Loss: £10,000

On the other hand, with only two sales number 21 shows a rise:

  • 21, Tetley Court
    Transaction history
    2014-12-19 £280,000
    2000-08-25 £210,000
    Gain: £70,000

The newer Audley site at Audley Clevedon, built in 2009 at Ilkley in West Yorkshire generally shows price rises, but again there are some small inconsistencies.

  • 4, Clevedon House
    2011-10-17 £310,000
    2010-04-28 £370,000
    Loss: £60,000
  • 12, Clevedon House
    Transaction history
    2014-10-08 £355,000
    2013-07-31 £320,000
    2011-06-27 £370,000
    Loss: £15,000

The Audley site at Audley Willicombe Park in Tunbridge Wells, seems more copper bottomed, with no losses registered.

The site, built in 1999, is 67 apartments, penthouses, bungalows, cottages and lodges set in four acres of landscaped gardens around the Victorian villa Willicombe House.

Here is an example:

  • Flat 4, Willicombe House
    2014-11-04 £240,000
    2012-05-30 £225,000
    2011-01-04 £200,000
    2008-11-28 £195,000
    2004-06-26 £155,000
    2001-06-26 £155,000
    2000-11-14 £124,000
    Gain: £116,000

And at the last gasp of the property boom, someone paid this astronomic price for this retirement flat:

  • Flat 7, Willicombe House
    2008-09-22 £785,000
    1999-12-06 £265,000
    Gain: £520,000

RetirementVillagesResaleValuesRetirement Villages makes the same sort of offering as Audley at 14 sites around the country, which are retirement complexes usually set around pleasant country houses.

Blagdon Village is a purpose built village just outside Taunton, with club facilities, bar and restaurant, library and gym.

In all, there are 85 flats, bungalows and cottages, of two and three bedrooms, which were built in 2006.

Completed on the cusp of the property downturn there are inevitably some negative retirement housing values, like this one:

  • 81 Kinglake Drive
    2014-01-29 £240,000
    2009-12-11 £248,950
    Loss: £8,950

On the other hand, by 2015 prices should have been showing positive, but this one wasn’t:

  • 65 Kinglake Drive
    2016-02-22 £215,000
    2009-06-30 £237,500
    Loss £22,500

And this one, bought during the downturn and sold earlier this year should have increased by more than a few hundred pounds over six years:

  • Flat 48, Vivary House, Kinglake Drive
    2016-01-12 £195,950
    2010-03-08 £195,000
    Gain: £950

This one is more encouraging:

  • Flat 5, Middleway House, Kinglake Drive
    2014-08-07 £226,000
    2007-11-30 £202,000
    Gain: £24,000

RetirementSecurityThe Campaign against Residential Leasehold Exploitation thoroughly applauds the efforts to improve the sector of retirement housebuilder of Bob Bessell, the founder of Retirement Security, based in Stratford upon Avon, who has built around 3,500 retirement flats.

But what is happening to the retirement housing values at its sites?

Pinner Court, in Harborne, in Birmingham, is 48 apartments that were completed in 1997. There are resident and non-resident staff and flats are one and two bedroom. The facilities are a lounge, restaurant, guest suite and hobby room / library.

Flat 1
2014-04-11 £180,000
1999-06-11 £101,500
Gain: £78,500

Flat 10
2012-02-20 £202,000
2011-02-18 £198,000
2008-08-29 £200,000
2007-10-19 £212,000
2003-09-24 £150,000
2001-04-06 £133,950
1999-02-19 £118,830
Gain: £83,170

Flat 28
2010-02-05 £190,000
2001-10-31 £137,500
1997-12-19 £105,500
Gain £84,500

And so it goes on. Today, not one flat at Pinner Court is registering a loss on its 1997 purchase price.

Of course, in the non-retirement sector it would be astonishing if there were any loss in value over these years.

Mr Bessell, who is 82, actually lives at Margaret Court, in Tiddington in Stratford-upon-Avon, a complex of 50 retirement housing flats that was built in 2009.

Flat 104 suffered a £5,000 loss during the property downturn, as do a couple of others sold in 2012-13:

Flat 104
2013-03-26 £245,000
2010-10-22 £250,000
Loss £5,000

But more recent data on retirement housing values are positive:

Flat 15
2015-10-15 £395,000
2010-07-23 £357,000
Gain £38,000

Flat 16
2016-06-10 £405,000
2012-04-19 £360,000
2009-10-21 £359,500
Gain £45,500

AnchorSalePricesThe Anchor housing association, the biggest in the country, has 230 purpose-built retirement housing sites.

LKP chose at random the Easingwold site at Altrincham, in Cheshire, which is a complex of 30 flats built in 1987 with a part-time manager.

Retirement housing values from new – or from Land Registry records dating from 1995 – are modestly positive.

Flat 18
2015-10-12 £140,000
2000-10-26 £82,000
1999-05-28 £79,950
Gain: £60,050

Flat 20
2004-04-08 £135,950
2002-09-23 £125,000
1999-06-29 £86,000
1995-06-23 £74,950
Gain: £61,000

And one strongly negative value:

Flat 29
2013-12-02 £88,500
2006-06-02 £124,950
2002-10-11 £169,950
Loss: £81,450

PegasusLifePegasus retirement housing properties were slightly upmarket of McCarthy and Stone, but the then management did exactly the same thing by selling its freeholds to Vincent Tchenguiz, or rather the Tchenguiz Family Trust based in the British Virgin Islands.

It has now been revived by Howard Phillips, a former CEO of McCarthy and Stone, and has gone even more upmarket.

The portfolio, like McCarthy and Stone’s historic freeholds, are managed by FirstPort.

The sites are repetitively called Pegasus Court, and this small one of 19 flats at Eastbourne, in East Sussex, was built in 2002.

There are no resident staff, but there are guest facilities and a lounge.

All retirement housing values are showing a negative from new, although prices in recent years seem to be climbing back a bit.

Flat 10
2013-11-14 £137,250
2002-03-28 £183,259
Loss: £46,009

Flat 8
2015-07-03 £157,000
2002-09-30 £184,950
Loss: £27,950

Flat 9
2015-06-05 £144,950
2003-03-21 £199,950
Loss: £55,000

Related posts:

AgeUK echoes Campaign against Residential Leasehold Exploitation in demanding retirement housing reform Guardian reports dismal retirement flat re-sale prices, as seller ponders £28,000 offer Default ThumbnailBottomley demands meeting over leasehold with Housing Minister Mark Prisk after LKP / Campaign against Retirement Leasehold Exploitation conference The Times: ‘Exit fees and poor resale values: the uncomfortable truth about retirement homes’ You and Yours features Campaign against Residential Leasehold Exploitation and OFT inquiry into leasehold management

Category: Commons Debate 20/12/16, Latest News, News, RetirementTag: Anchor, Anchor Trust, Audley Retirement, McCarthy and Stone, Pegasus, Retirement, Retirement Security Limited, Retirement Villages

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Comments

  1. Michael Epstein

    September 6, 2016 at 7:22 am

    If you think the losses in values are bad now,You haven’t seen anything yet?
    Remember, these flats are leasehold and the clock is ticking on the remaining years of the lease.
    As time counts down, values will go down faster than the lift in Towering Inferno!

    • chas

      September 8, 2016 at 12:02 am

      chas says:

      September 8, 2016 at 12:13 am

      Hi Susan, nice to hear from you again.

      Michael,
      I posted last year that McCarthy & Stone developments had lost up to 40% of the value of purchase. Having said that, I recently posted, that over night, the local ex McCarthy & Stone One Bed Flat increased from £75k to £109k over night.

      Was this a collusive decision between Freeholder, Fairhold 7 Landlord Estate & Management along with the local Estate Agent?

      Other local development where Fairhold and E&M are not involved, at Ashbrook Court increased in value by up to 20% over the past ten years?

    • chas

      September 18, 2016 at 6:28 pm

      Michael Remember:

      McCarthy & Stone (M&S) in a damming programme in 2012, was not the first time they were rumbled regarding unfair charges at their own developments. On 24/09/12 almost 4 years ago a Chanel 4 Dispatches Program on Retirement Leasehold exposed McCarthy & Stone. This was a brilliant example of television journalism that was extremely critical of both McCarthy & Stone and Peverel. The defeat at the LVT at the hands of pensioners at Strand Court, Rye can be read on the betterretirementhousing.com Website.

      The focus was an exposé of McCarthy & Stone, whose seemingly motherly sales force (“mother value” is the dubious term M&S uses) were revealed to be unreliable. New buyers would have been appalled at the way the sales team coaxes them into a disadvantageous part-exchange sales process of their existing home.

      Marion Bowley, in Weston super Mare, was offered £140,000 for her pleasant family house. But she sold it herself for £190,000 some £50,000 more, after only two weeks on the market.

      In 1989 a damming article about McCarthy & Stone regarding excessive inflated Service Charges in England. Comments from residents spoke about excessive and misleading sums for the Service Charges.

      1991 M&S launched High Court action against Daily Telegraph, claiming £800,000 damages over many articles regarding excessive service charges.

      1993 M&S sold Peverel as they were perceived as a potential conflict of interest.

      After the first article appeared, there was a crisis management meeting attended by Nigel Bannister head of Peverel, (now director at a similar Peverel Company, Freemont) Others involved including Head of Age Concern Sally Greengross, who had referred in the House of Lords to us pensioners as “barrack-room lawyers” with too much time on our hands.

      More critical articles against M&S by the Daily Telegraph continued. In 1991 M&S launching a libel action against the Daily Telegraph. Suddenly during the court case the High Court learned that M&S had just been fined £2,000 by the OFT for misleading sales literature. M&S had spent £200,000 on lawyers, decide to walk away, therefore loosing their Libel Case.

      1993 the perceived conflict along with the loss of the court case and the fine for misleading sales literature resulted in the sale of Peverel for £30 million as part of a Management Buyout. This was managed by Electra Investments. Strangely Electra Investments, along with Chamonix, later purchased Peverel out of administrators in 2012 for £50 million.

      M&S now own Churchill Retirement Living, run by family members. M&S are attempting to resurrect the company having recently removed all Peverel Managing Agents from portfolios.

  2. ElTel

    September 6, 2016 at 11:55 am

    These RED figures are quite startling when compared with normal market trends, especially if ‘offspring’ are looking to recover some monetary value from the passing of their retired relative after all their efforts in ensuring a comfortable ‘autumn’. Are there any figures to show alterations to Ground Rates on purchasing a 2nd hand home and also impact on Lease agreemnets when approaching the magic yearly number count (which slips my mind). These figures may have more of an immediate effect on the resident whilst alive, wheras the on-sale value is merely, and to be blunt, a bequeathed liability

  3. Robin MacKay

    September 6, 2016 at 12:11 pm

    Re-sale values plummet
    Interesting post, for years you have been raising the profile of escalating service charges and Right To Manage Sites generally being 20% less.
    In view of this there should be a correlation between sites that have achieved RIGHT TO MANAGE and re-sale values which buyers are looking for.
    For example our service charge for 2016/17 is £5000 less than 2009, due new local agent (no Vat charged) competitive insurance cover and careful control of budget since 2010 by RTM. Keep the garden tidy, decorate the common areas, new good quality machines in the laundry room, first impressions count at all sites, and relatives are not forced into a distressed sale situation.

  4. Worried prospective purchaser RF

    September 6, 2016 at 12:11 pm

    I have been looking at the possibility of purchasing a property in Hampshire from Churchill since August 2015 and having researched property sales of a number of their sites in the South using land registry records going back some 10 years, I have been appalled at the poor resale prices being achieved at all of the sites I reviewed. Anything up to 62% of original purchase price.

    As a result I have reluctantly concluded that the best way to decimate my family’s legacy when I eventually pass on, would be to purchase, would be to purchase such a property. After much thought and several debates with Churchill sales team members (which always centre about lifestyle choices), I have totally abandoned the idea.

    As a point of interest I am curious as to why you did not include Churchill in your survey as a number of their senior management are Ex McCarty employees!!!!!

    • admin

      September 6, 2016 at 12:18 pm

      A mistake. Churchill Retirement Living figures have been added.

      [McCarthy family own Churchill.]

  5. Michael Epstein

    September 6, 2016 at 1:20 pm

    One of the reasons I suspect for the large falls in value for retirement developments is that the initial purchase price is artificially enhanced as part of the ” Buying into the lifestyle” value put on it by the developers. take this “lifestyle’ feature away, and purchasers are paying up to 40% over the odds as compared to a fairer asset price.
    Since the majority of purchasers are downsizing, they tend to give less scrutiny to the actual financial burdens of living in a retirement development.
    The frustrating thing is, that the concept of retirement development living is a very good one, when the system is not exploited.

  6. Michael Hollands

    September 6, 2016 at 7:30 pm

    This loss of resale value is nothing new. It appeared in an article in “This is Money” in 2012.
    When M&S first thought out and created this Retirement Complex industry in the 1980’s it was a brilliant idea and filled a big hole in the market.
    The owners of freehold houses were prepared to pay good money to downsize into a secure and stress free lifestyle.. Services/Mamagement charges, Ground Rent and Exit Fees were little understood then and so were overlooked..
    When M&S sold out to some rather dubious characters things took a turn for the worse and values plummeted.
    The whole industry got a poor reputation, but still there was a shortage of this accommodation so the new updated and much higher spec complexes still sold and still do. And they still eventually fall in value.
    One must think of it as an investment into a lifestyle, Something that cannot be turned into a cash profit, and something that could be more of a liability than a windfall to those who inherit it.

    • admin

      September 7, 2016 at 8:29 am

      Knowing that retirement house prices fall and being able to demonstrate it are two different things.

      And there are differences in re-sales depending on the market when the site was completed: more positive if the site was sold during the downturn; sharply negative if sold out during the boom years.

      The article we have published is no more than a snapshot of figures revealed in the Land Registry. Once our membership of the Open Data Institute is formally announced next month, we can begin mining all these data sources for comprehensive information on all aspects of leasehold, including retirement property prices. The information then needs to be properly analysed, which the above is not.

      Your other points: The problems with McCarthy and Stone did not begin with its sale, or the sale of its freeholds, which is what we think you mean. There were problems with the leases (exit fees, high ground rents, short leases of only 99 or 125 years) and the monopoly property management (cf John McCarthy’s failure to silence the Daily Telegraph in 1991; the OFT inquiries into exit fees and the Peverel / Cirrus price fixing scandal, both of which are covered exhaustively on betterretirementhousing.com).

      It is a very good thing for the elderly to downsize and to live communally in many circumstances. But the price should not be a property purchase of evaporating value.

      The care operators have a different model: there is a purchase of a lease, but this is bought back by the operator at the price paid or a percentage of price paid (95 per cent in the case of the Methodist Housing Association, for example) and the site is maintained as a long term asset. In other words, retirement property is a form of club.

      The New Zealand company LifeCare Residences, which is just selling out the very fancy Battersea Place, is doing this by charging a 30 per cent exit fee. In return, management charges remain fixed from the point of purchase. So the financially literate people buying there are making this calculation: this outfit knows what it is doing and is managing this prime London site for the long term; the property will rise in value and will get hit by the 30%; the kids won’t like that, but our service charges will remain static.

      Well, it is another way of producing retirement housing. And it is wholly to be welcomed that new companies are entering this sector and bringing in fresh thinking.

  7. Michael Epstein

    September 6, 2016 at 8:12 pm

    I believe it was Mr Sebastian O’Kelly who said at the time “retirement leasehold is a spectacularly bad property asset that has fallen in value further than any other residential property. The reason is clear. developers have encrusted the leases with sub-letting and exit fees and property management companies have profited in every way possible”
    What was true in 2012 is still true in 2016.

  8. Alec

    September 7, 2016 at 6:09 am

    “The frustrating thing is that the concept of retirement development living, is a very good one, when the system is not exploited.” – Michael Epstein above, and

    “: …when M&S sold out to some rather dubious characters…” – Michael Hollands.

    What a sordid, damning, and totally depressing state of affairs, which applies just as much to 10o’s of 1, 000’s of ordinary leasehold properties as it does to retirement living.

    Submissions [before end October] should be made to the Law Commission on this wholesale abuse by the unscrupulous few., and I would ask LKP to post full details so as to encourage this.

    As reform takes time to come into effect, strong representation should be made to the Law Commission requesting that EXISTING legislation be vigorously enforced.

    If the “dubious characters” and their fellow traveler legal advisers are checked by a declaration that existing laws will be scrupulously upheld, and gamesmanship lawyers disciplined where appropriate, this should provide the springboard for further reform.

    And get rid of the unscrupulous few, and their advisers, through whom this sordid trade is presently being allowed to fester unchecked.

    That this rotten band can exploit the elderly in such large numbers is not just unconscionable but inhuman.

    • Michael Epstein

      September 7, 2016 at 7:43 am

      How often have you seen an advert for a car that is available for a three year period on a lease?
      At the end of the advert, it is made clear that “you do not own the car”
      And yet, change the word “car” for “property” and suddenly you “Own” It?
      So I would ban the use of the term” Homeowner” for any property that has a lease attached.
      You are not buying a leasehold property. You are buying a lease, which gives you the right to occupy a property for a said term until the end of the lease.
      All leases should be made readily available to potential purchasers..

      • Michael Hollands

        September 7, 2016 at 9:30 am

        I think the question of whether it is legitimate to describe leaseholders as Home Owners need sorting once and for all.
        M&S use the term numerous times in their Life and Living magazine, and in their Guode to Retirement Living and Guide to Purchasing a Retirement Apartment.

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