What do I look for

The first thing to decide is what is important to you and why you are considering a move to retirement housing. Do you want a smaller more manageable home? Close to shops? Nearer to family? What sort of services are you after? Is it just estate management services - gardens and buildings maintenance and little things like refuse removal, cleaning windows or are you really after more personal care or would you like dining facilities?

Perhaps Assisted Living - within the grounds of a residential home, where additional services can be bought as and when required. Alternatively you may just be looking for a lock up and leave - somewhere you know is going to be looked after in your absence, where insurance is not a problem, where you can return knowing everything is safe and sound.

Good retirement housing offers continued independence for the young and not so young and the vast majority of people quite happily enjoy their final years in such a secure environment. They only have recourse to a nursing home or hospital when something goes seriously wrong.

For further reading see "What do I look for" under Useful Information.

Is there flexibility

Is there flexibility in the level of services offered and do the properties themselves allow for flexibility in advancing years?

Many retirement developments offer in effect a "menu" of services which allows owners and residents to select the level of services they require. For example at Audley Courts independent retirement development at Harrogate in Yorkshire whilst you have automatic access to the standard services covered by the monthly service charge which includes 24 hour access to experienced staff, use of the club house, health suite, security systems, maintenance and so forth you; you can also "buy in" additional services such as shopping, cleaning, home help and more personal care and support. You only pay for the additional services you actually use.

With regard to properties many cottages, such as those at The Beechcroft Trust or English Courtyard Association, are designed with flexibility in mind so that dining rooms for example can be turned into bedrooms should living on one floor become neccessary. Also straight stairs are easier to manage when you are elderly. The best accommodation is always flexible enough to take into account advancing years.

Care levels

Within the all embracing term of retirement housing - usually purpose built accommodation, there are various levels of care: Care levels range from Very Sheltered Housing (24 hour duty housekeeper) and Sheltered Housing (Warden) through to Retirement Housing (Scheme Manager/Secretary), Assisted Living Developments (Estate Manager), Retirement Villages (Estate Manager) to Extra Care or Close Care independent cottages within the grounds of a residential or nursing home. (Home Manager).

The services provided in Sheltered Housing usually include access to communal grounds, communal lounge, laundry, guest suite and resident manager. Often one bedroom accomodation they are not really suitable for couples who are likely to prefer Retirement Housing which may or may not have a resident manager, lounge, guest room or laundry. What is usually common to both are estate management services and access to an emergency alarm system.

Assisted Living Developments are often able to provide total care packages where you can "buy in" the level of care you want, to Close Care which operates on a similar basis by having the facilities of a nursing or residential home available to occupants of the close care units.

The only common features of retirement housing are that they have self-contained accommodation, normally purpose-built in self contained schemes with estate management services and some communal facilities and alarm systems designed for their owners who pay a service charge. The concept has spread and these days there is often little difference between bespoke new leisure developments providing similar services such as swimming pools and gyms and coffee bars for busy young professionals. Retirement Housing though can often have attractive communal grounds where responsibility for the upkeep is that of the management company rather than individuals and responsibility doesn‘t stop at the front gate.

Gardens

Most developments have communal gardens and private gardens are fairly rare. This is because it is much cheaper to maintain uninterupted areas of lawn and communal gardens don't have unsightly fences splitting up otherwise open green spaces. Quite a few developments do have areas set aside for allotments.

Normally the small area of garden in front of your house or next to your ground floor apartment is maintained by you or the the estate gardener. To change the general landscaping though would probably require planning consent. Most schemes are developed with low maintenance in mind though trees often block out the light sooner rather than later.

What to expect

Surprisingly the costs associated with living in a retirement scheme are likely to be less than those living in other accommodation due to the simple fact that 25 people or so can effectively "buy-in" services cheaper than single users. For example to pay a gardener today for maintaing a quarter acre garden depending on where in the country you are is likely to be of the order of five hundred pounds per annum. But 25 of you could share a gardener for much less. Equally buildings insurance is much cheaper when 25 people get together in the same development.

Eighty per cent of costs are evenly spread in most schemes in the sense that everyone benefits from them in equal proportion to the number of properties on a development irespective of size of property. It dose not really matter if you are in a two bedroom or three bedroom property in a landscaped courtyard scheme. For example on most schemes the day to day staff costs make up about 30% of the total with the alarm system (5%) gardening, (10%) insurance (5%) reserve funds (10%) and management (15%). The remainder is made up of window cleaning, refuse removal, landlords costs - such as fire equipment, communal cleaning, furniture, laundry machines and further items including water charges, telephone, postage and other sundry expenses.

On most developments the costs which you as the occupier have to allow for are essentially five and these domestic costs are made up as follows: Electricity/Water, internal decoration, contents insurance, telephone/internet and council tax.

The sinking fund

The Sinking Fund or Reserve Fund is usually a special account for long-term maintenance such as roof tile replacement or lift renewals and for other significant but not neccessarily annual items of expenditure such as lawnmower replacement, furniture renewal.

Questions to ask

Who is able to buy retirement housing? Normally anyone can buy a property provided the occupier is older than a certain age. For example a neice or nephew could buy a property for an aunt who is over fifty-five. On some developments the age restriction may be higher having been imposed by the local authority with the original planning consent.

What are the hours of the scheme manager and what sort of cover is there at weekends? Most scheme managers in retirement housing are on duty during the day and at weekends emergency calls are put through to a central monitoring system.

What is the general level of security? How easy is it to gain access to the development or property? Some developments have public access through them so they are not very secure. Others have visiting scheme managers only. All apartment buildings should have telephone entry systems.

What is the level of care? Are there communal facilities and other shared facilities such as a guest room and laundry? Can care easily be brought into the development?

Restrictions

Can you sublease the property? Can you rent the property if you go away for six months or so?

Are dogs allowed? Normally this is a matter of reasonableness - if you have two young red setters probably not.

What alterations can you make? Can you put up a satellite dish? Alterations to the external apperance of a development are not normally allowed.

Is there room to park a caravan? Are there any parking restrictions?

Commonhold

Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Act 2002 allows owners (leaseholders) the right to take on the management of their developments subject to certain qualifying conditions.

Value

Long leases (99 years+) or freeholds are clearly more valuable than short leases - those that are less than fifty years. Generally once a lease gets to less than sixty years in length the capital value starts to tail off. The open market value of a flat or house, its worth, is the highest price one particular person puts on the property. This of course will reflect the particular circumstances of the buyer and also assumes the buyer is in a position to proceed.

Equity Release

Equity Release schemes allow you to release funds from the value of your home to spend or invest in any way you wish. They are often tax efficient particularly where inheritance tax is concerned. However there are many things to understand in the selection of a suitable plan and there are many advisory centres able to guide you through the process.

Purchase Costs

Some approximate costs might be as follows:

  • Solicitors Fee - 1000
  • Survey Fee - 500
  • Removal Expenses - 500
  • Stamp Duty
  • Redecoration
  • Insurance

Preserving Capital

For many people this is extremely important. Retirement properties with long leases of more than 99 years will maintain values longer than shorter leases. Leases less than sixty years significantly loose their value. For some who do not wish/need to leave large legacies and benefit from house price inflation in the long run then lifetime residency plans or simly shorter leases can be the answer. For some people renting is the preferred option.