Figures prepared for the BBC in 2017 by the Elderly Accommodation Counsel, a charity, found that about half of new-build retirement homes sold during a 10-year period were later resold at a loss. “So much for the early bird discount,” he says.Ĭross is not alone in finding that retirement flats can be a poor investment. The stress has been so much, and to be honest it’s made me so stroppy and moody, it’s cost me my relationship too.”Ĭross says that when he researched Land Registry figures, he found that other flats in the development had been sold for £99,000 when new. One of the buy-it-now companies has offered me as little as £15,000 for it. I’ve got my own home to pay for, and you can’t run two houses on a normal wage. “In total it’s costing me £900 a month to keep. “I’m going to go bankrupt at this rate,” he says. While the flat has been on the market, Cross has been liable for the service charge, ground rent and council tax, shelling out £18,000 so far. “The feedback from the selling agents is that the high cost of service charges puts people off buying,” says Cross. In other words, a retired person could be paying nearly all their state pension in service and ground rent charges. On top of that, the ground rent is a further £415 a year. Last year the charge was £562 every month – equal to £6,744 a year, although this year it dropped back to £519 a month. Why not? Cross blames what he describes as the “punitive” service charge on the one-bed flat. But even at this price, he can’t find a buyer. When Cross first inherited the flat in 2015, the estate agents put it on the market for £143,000. Perhaps even more shocking is the council tax bill on Cross’s one-bed flat, which has spiralled to £3,000 this year and is heading to £4,500 next year – or more than the tax on a multimillion-pound mansion in Mayfair. McCarthy & Stone is the biggest builder of retirement flats in Britain, with 1,200 developments across the country, and sales of about £700m a year, but has faced repeated accusations of poor resale values.

I lost flat stanley