An analysis of Land Registry data has shown that three-quarters of the flats built by Churchill Retirement – owned by the McCarthy family who founded McCarthy and Stone – have resold at a loss, according to The Times. The average fall in value has been 18%, or £43,000, the newspaper said, with one flat in […]
Three quarters of Churchill Retirement flats have lost money when resold, says The Times
October 5, 2023 By
The Times says families ‘lost £3 billion’ on resales of leasehold retirement flats, while developers and freehold speculators made millions
November 23, 2019 By
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 […]
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 […]
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. […]
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 […]
Downsizing pensioners assailed by ‘fleecehold’ charges, reports Daily Mail
December 14, 2018 By
Fleecehold charges have been reported in the Daily Mail: Retired engineer Walter Wright and his wife Peggy thought they had found the perfect place to downsize,. The three-bedroom detached home was only a couple of years old and would need less upkeep than their bungalow, which had a very large garden. When they purchased the £269,000 […]
Did government concession on ground rents stuff new thinking in retirement housing?
November 14, 2018 By
The new chief executive of McCarthy and Stone John Tonkiss is delighted the government has caved in over retirement housing ground rents, while announcing strategic changes that were prompted by the prospect of this reform. The company argued strongly in favour of ground rents because it was disadvantaged by having to provide communal areas at […]
Tchenguiz brothers fall out among themselves, says The Times
May 17, 2018 By
The Tchenguiz brothers – who before the crash were among the most powerful corporate players in the UK – are litigating again: this time among themselves, according to today’s Times. The dispute centres on the Tchenguiz Family Trust, based in the British Virgin Islands, which at one point claimed to own one per cent of […]
Elderly Accommodation Counsel says half new-build retirement flats fall in value on resale
September 9, 2017 By
BBC R4 MoneyBox today claims that around half of new build retirement homes sold during a 10-year period were later re-sold at a loss. This has long been a concern of BetterRetirementHousing.com, formerly the Campaign Against Retirement Leasehold Exploitation. In all our criticisms of resale prices we have relied solely on unarguable data from the […]
4% of McCarthy and Stone earnings come from ground rents
July 26, 2017 By
The announcement yesterday by Sajid Javid, Communities Secretary, that he is to ban the sale of leasehold houses and reduce ground rents on new properties to “as low as” zero resulted from months of work by the Leasehold Knowledge Partnership. It will have a marked effect on McCarthy and Stone, according to an article in […]
Victoria Derbyshire told ‘we must end cheating speculators in leasehold housing’
February 8, 2017 By
Shady speculators in UK property assets including residential freeholds were raised on the BBC TV’s Victoria Derbyshire show yesterday. It can be viewed here at 1:44 Sebastian O’Kelly, of LKP, said in an interview: “We are told that residential freeholds are bought by pension funds and that it pays for your and my pensions. “Absolute […]
