I am so happy that I managed to move from my house in a London suburb to a flat in Weston super Mare right at the end of 2019. Would have hated to had the last year at my house, but have been very happy here.
Did take me four years to make that move and a lot of that time was taken with really investigating the type of flat and location that I wanted.
So, the large Living room here is actually a better shape and far more roomy than the Through Lounge in my house. Have two bedrooms, one en-sute, and separate bathroom. Kitchen big enough for me to work in. Wide hallway. I love it it here. Have a large balcony on which I can sit in the summer, and have pots of plants to look at. Garage on ground floor.
The residents here form their own voluntary cttee which runs our own maintenance. With no company making profit from us, it keeps that cost reasonable. We each own our own bit of freehold, so no land rents. Built of thick Weston stone, you would have to be very, very noisy to impinge on your neighbours. I have had no problems over the last 15 months whatsoever.
When buying you have to agree, legally, to certain rules one of which is that we are not permitted to rent out our flats. Some blocks have an minimum age restriction for purchasers (usually 55 yrs), to prevent children and teenagers living in them. Ours does not, however all, but one of the 25 flats., are owned and lived in by people over that age.
Many flats do have gardens, if that is what you want. Usually ground floor ones, but not necessarily so - in this block there are two flats on the 5th floor which have good size garden areas (over the roofs as this floor is set back) . I most definitely did not want this, so happy not to have that responsibility any more.
You need to know exactly what you need and are looking for. I would say that some sort of balcony is important, not the Portia type ones, but somewhere you can sit and enjoy a drink. Watch out for parking, even if you do not run a car, you will need somewhere for your visitors and also for anybody you are having in to do work in your flat.
Beware that Retirement Flats are usually those that have a communal Lounge, maybe a central laundry room, and a House Manage (9-5 Monday to Friday), but are then very small, and very expensive and often quite controlled as to what you can actually do in your flat and when it is to be sold. I looked at two such blocks of these - they both also had a car park which was just designated First come-First served'.
I really love living in a first floor flat, feel so safe and secure and it is really good having my kitchen and living room so close to my bedroom. No longer all that wasted heat up the stairs, etc. or that 'climbing Everest' feeling at night. Equally, if I am having a very bad night, I can just move into my Living room for a time, or make myself a cup of tea in the kitchen.
Our car park is locked at 6 every night, (every flat owner has a key), the entrances/exits to the block have the porch areas closed off at night. It really does help us all to feel so safe. We have a large foyer area, and are fortunate that one of our volunteer residents does the most amazing faux flower arrangements in this, changing every couple of months. It is so beautiful there that any time a flat goes on the market, estate agents always include a couple of photos of this foyer in their sales brochures.
So, Yes, I would really suggest moving to a flat, particularly as you get older. But...you do need to know exactly what is important to you both in terms of the flat itself and its location, so lots of investigations are required.
I was warned not to consider going into a flat which was a large house that had been re-configured. Only to look at purpose built flats. Many of those others do have some lovely, roomy flats, but the maintenance agreements/arrangements can be more of a problem. So, it would be buyer-beware!!!