Is the ground rent ban responsible? Sebastian O’Kelly I guess when you stand down as boss of a publicly quoted retirement housing company that has seen profits fall from £110 million to £65-£80 the headline-writing punsters are not going to miss a trick. So, Clive Fenton, 60, McCarthy and Stone’s CEO, is being “pensioned off” […]
Anti-ground rent trade body ARCO snubbed at retirement housing conference … (along with us, less surprisingly)
June 15, 2018 By
The anti-ground rent trade body ARCO has been snubbed and left uninvited by retirement housing insiders at a City law firm conference next Wednesday to discuss whether a Retirement Housing Act is needed. The Association of Retirement Community Operators, whose members build and manage their retirement housing and care sites for the long term, has […]
Please exempt retirement housebuilders from ground rent ban, pleads Sir Desmond Swayne
May 17, 2018 By
Senior Tory MP Sir Desmond Swaine has pleaded with the Communities Secretary to consider exempting volume retirement housebuilders from the ban on new ground rents. The MP for New Forest West – coincidentally not far from McCarthy and Stone’s Trump-style HQ in Bournemouth – asked in the Tuesday housing debate: “On new build leaseholds, is […]
Complain to Advertising Standards Authority about misleading ‘home ownership’ when applied to retirement leasehold tenancies
April 19, 2018 By
A veteran leasehold campaigner from Carlex earliest days, Susan Wood, has just repeated a complaint to the Advertising Standards Authority about leasehold tenancies being described as “home ownership” that she first made in 2012. Her first complaint concerned Churchill Retirement. Now she complains about McCarthy and Stone describing their flats in an advert in Saga […]
Love over 50: something we can agree about with McCarthy and Stone
April 19, 2018 By
Respect where it is due. Well done McCarthy and Stone for promoting love over 50. Here is the link to the full article: Dating for over 50s: how to find love in later life – McCarthy & Stone Love in later life can seem daunting. If you’ve been married for some years and are recently […]
Dear Mr Fenton: I don’t regret my purchase at Rosewood Court, but ‘leasehold is a rip-off’
April 18, 2018 By
All re-sales at Rosewood Court should falls in value from new, with several down £50-£60,000. The highest fall is flat 21 showing a fall from February 2004 to May 2017 of £81,500 Clive Fenton, CEO, McCarthy & Stone Dear Mr Fenton, My late wife and I purchased a McCarthy & Stone retirement flat at Rosewood […]
ARCO snubs McCarthy and Stone / Churchill by saying there is no need for ground rents
January 31, 2018 By
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 […]
ARHM cannot see a future in traditional ‘granny flat’ volume retirement sales
November 21, 2017 By
Annual conference hears why renting, mutuals or guaranteed buy-back schemes are more attractive than leasehold flat sales Not one attempt was made to defend the volume retirement housing business model as it came under sustained attack at the annual conference of the Association of Retirement Housing Managers last week. The keynote speaker Sebastian O’Kelly, of […]
Resale disaster zone: Burlington Court in Bridlington, where one flat has sold for £36,000
September 9, 2017 By
5 flats sold for less than £50,000. 12 flats less than £60,001 The dismal state of retirement flat resales is starkly illustrated by figures from the Land Registry concerning Burlington Court in Bridlington. Five of the flats here have been sold for less than £50,000; seven of the flats have sold for less than £60,000. […]
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 […]
Ground rents are essential to McCarthy and Stone’s business model
September 8, 2017 By
… but leaseholders are concerned it is selling freeholds to anonymous buyers … McCarthy and Stone complains about ‘right to reply’ to LKP / Better Retirement Housing articles McCarthy and Stone told The Times yesterday that there would be fewer of its form of retirement flats if the government reduces ground rents to a minimal […]
Pensioners hammered with 88% rise in ground rents
August 4, 2017 By
… 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. Ground rents at Churchill sites […]
