The Times today suggests that families have lost £3 billion on the resale of leasehold retirement flats between 2001 and 2015 in a series of articles that add up to a devastating investigation of the sector. Some 80 per cent of the properties sold had fallen in value, with an average loss of £38,846, the […]
Archives for 2019
The Times says families ‘lost £3 billion’ on resales of leasehold retirement flats, while developers and freehold speculators made millions
November 23, 2019 By
Churchill Retirement donates £150,000 to Conservatives. To retain ground rents, by any chance?
November 22, 2019 By
Churchill Retirement, which belongs to the McCarthy family who founded McCarthy and Stone, yesterday gave £150,000 to the Conservative party. Churchill Retirement has led the rear-guard action to exempt retirement housing from the government’s three-times repeated promise to reduce new ground rents to zero. McCarthy and Stone, on the other hand, more or less conceded […]
Guardian reports dismal retirement flat re-sale prices, as seller ponders £28,000 offer
November 18, 2019 By
‘My flat was £161,950 in 2007 – now I’m offered just £28,000’ When Tony Cross’s father was the first buyer at a McCarthy & Stone retirement development in Folkestone, Kent, he thought he was getting a bargain. The sales rep offered him an “early bird” discount, knocking £3,000 off the cost of a one-bed flat, […]
Your Housing Group shared equity retirement flat that sold for £38,000 on ITV
August 29, 2019 By
A family who bought a shared equity retirement flat and lost £50,000 on its re-sale will feature on ITV tonight. Housing Crisis: What Next For The Elderly? Tonight Housing Crisis: What next for the Elderly? Tonight Most experts agree we are in the midst of a housing crisis but much of the focus has been […]
Elderly Accommodation Counsel says ‘recent retirement flat resales have increased in value’
August 20, 2019 By
Evidence based on sales since 2010 Evidence includes unverifiable discounts – ‘incentives’ – from the retirement developers LKP refused to be associated with the report and urged non-publication In spite of abundant evidence on the Land Registry of catastrophic falls in value of retirement properties, today (August 20 2019) the Elderly Accommodation Counsel reports that […]
Family save £25,000 over McCarthy and Stone shared equity lease, thanks to Better Retirement Housing
July 31, 2019 By
A family selling a McCarthy and Stone retirement flat with a rip-off lease condition have been saved £25,000 after the case was taken up by Better Retirement Housing. Rita May Bailey, who is now deceased, bought the one-bedroom flat at Bridewell Court, in Widnes, Cheshire in February 2008, which has a registered price of £167,450. […]
Government will cave in to retirement house builders over ground rents, says Times
May 11, 2019 By
What does this say about setting new in wider market to zero? The government is poised to exclude retirement house builders from the much delayed ban on ground rents. Headed by leading retirement builder McCarthy and Stone and Churchill Retirement (which is privately owned by the McCarthy family), have been lobbying hard for an exclusion. […]
£15,000 for Pegasus Court leasehold retirement flat in Rochdale – which once sold for £85,000
May 1, 2019 By
Another disastrous retirement leasehold resale price, where neighbours have paid £165,000 A leasehold retirement flat at Pegasus Court, in Rochdale – built by Pegasus Retirement – is up for auction with a headline price of £15,000 later this month. The property has been sold twice before: for £59,750 when new in 1997, and for £84,950 […]
MP Huw Merriman tells prime minister retirement ground rents should be zero
March 6, 2019 By
Tory MP Huw Merriman called for zero ground rents for retirement housing at prime minister’s questions today. He talked of pensioners trapped in McCathy & Stone properties, which have fast depreciating values. He named Vincent Tchenguiz, whose Tchenguiz Family Trust in the British Virgin Islands ultimately owns the old McCarthy and Stone freehold book, and […]
Your Housing Group shared equity retirement flat sells for £39,000, after three years on the market
January 9, 2019 By
A Your Housing Group shared 75% equity retirement flat has sold for only £39,129.26, after three years on the market. The property is at Your Housing Group’s Heyeswood Retirement Village, in Haydock, Merseyside. The property was bought by the mother of Cath White in August 2015 for £92,213 but has now sold – after three years […]
Family outraged by £50,000 exit fee at Retirement Villages’ Mayford Grange
January 7, 2019 By
But a cash loss from purchase of only £5,000 is not THAT bad, in UK retirement housing … By Sebastian O’Kelly Yet again retirement housing is in the news: this time Retirement Villages charging £50,000 in exit fees to a family who sold a two-bedroom flat at Mayford Grange, in Woking in Surrey. The Sunday […]
