Enjoy life while you can.

Malthusian

westv said:

It always surprises me when I hear about 55+ flats. You would have thought in this day and age they would be 65+ or similar.

It is the same reason books for teenagers are called "young adult literature" and books for pre-teens are called "teenage", but in reverse. Marketing.

sevenhills said:

 This seems ideal to me, you get a tailor-made flat designed for older people, you are renting so any capital in your previous home is released.

On the downside you see far fewer younger people, which means you die quicker.

Studies have shown that interaction with young people has a significant beneficial effect on the health of older people. Many care homes were forging links with local primary schools and nurseries to improve their residents' health, until the lockdown movement kiboshed that.

Albermarle

t always surprises me when I hear about 55+ flats. You would have thought in this day and age they would be 65+ or similar.

As said it has got to be just to give a better image than saying 65+, which is actually the reality.

I read that buying these sorts of properties is a bad move as they have actually decreased in price over the last few years . It is due to oversupply and a restricted pool of buyers.

zagfles

Albermarle said:

t always surprises me when I hear about 55+ flats. You would have thought in this day and age they would be 65+ or similar.

As said it has got to be just to give a better image than saying 65+, which is actually the reality.

I read that buying these sorts of properties is a bad move as they have actually decreased in price over the last few years . It is due to oversupply and a restricted pool of buyers.

Also stuff like maintenance charges, service charges, ground rent, restrictions in what you can do eg some say you have to resell through them, and how these charges and charges for repairs etc could escalate over the years.

Linton

Albermarle said:

t always surprises me when I hear about 55+ flats. You would have thought in this day and age they would be 65+ or similar.

As said it has got to be just to give a better image than saying 65+, which is actually the reality.

I read that buying these sorts of properties is a bad move as they have actually decreased in price over the last few years . It is due to oversupply and a restricted pool of buyers.

Bad for your beneficiaries, almost certainly.  But I dont see why falling prices means buying a purpose built 55+ property is necessarily a bad move for you.

zagfles

Linton said:

Albermarle said:

t always surprises me when I hear about 55+ flats. You would have thought in this day and age they would be 65+ or similar.

As said it has got to be just to give a better image than saying 65+, which is actually the reality.

I read that buying these sorts of properties is a bad move as they have actually decreased in price over the last few years . It is due to oversupply and a restricted pool of buyers.

Bad for your beneficiaries, almost certainly.  But I dont see why falling prices means buying a purpose built 55+ property is necessarily a bad move for you.

Because of the reason for the falling prices, eg escalating maintenance charges. Also what if you want to move to a property type that hasn't fallen in price.

Albermarle

Don't buy one in Folkestone anyway .
https://www.theguardian.com/money/2019/nov/16/flat-retirement-builder-value-mccarthy-stone

trevjl

I know we are on MSE, but whether it will be a good investment or not is not really always the main consideration. May be being a bit anal here, but that was the last thing on my mind when I purchased one for my mother 4 years ago. She has next to nothing after my father died 20 years ago leaving very little and needed moving as she was going to peg out sooner rather than later where she was. Am I worried that it might not have been a great investment ? She was 88 yesterday

zagfles

trevjl said:

I know we are on MSE, but whether it will be a good investment or not is not really always the main consideration. May be being a bit anal here, but that was the last thing on my mind when I purchased one for my mother 4 years ago. She has next to nothing after my father died 20 years ago leaving very little and needed moving as she was going to peg out sooner rather than later where she was. Am I worried that it might not have been a great investment ? She was 88 yesterday

Investment isn't the issue, the issue is why the prices are falling, eg as above, escalating maintenance charges, what if she could no longer afford them and was forced to sell at a loss to move somewhere without high charges?

trevjl

Maybe we are lucky, her charges have actually gone down when taking into account inflation as a new management company took over. She pays £2.5K a year including water and communal laundry. I paid £87K, they now sell for around £120K, although, there is definitely an over supply locally as there are a few empty.

DairyQueen

Auntie (89 this year and very active) downsized from a bungalow to a tiny one-bedder in a retirement complex a year ago. She is as happy as Larry.

After my uncle died the bungalow and garden were just too much for her to maintain. She netted 170k after the purchase, spent £50k on revamping the flat inc new furniture, gifted a lump sum to each of her children and pocketed the rest. Her pension and small drawdown from her savings are sufficient to cover all of her modest needs.

The service charge is around 2.5k p.a. for a ground floor flat with French doors onto a tiny terrace and the communal garden. She doesn't drive and is in walking distance of a supermarket and newsagent.

It's perfect for her and investment matters nought at her age.