Retirement Housing- Rent or Buy

Are we to assume that you, at present, own your own home. And, would be selling that, so the question is do you re-use that money to buy, or put it away or invest it and go for privately rented property.
This is such a personal decision, and would also depend on where you are and wish to live and in what. Also, do you still have money to pay off your existing home for mortgage.

If you have paid off your original mortgage, and looking to downsize you could probably have your cake and eat it, insofar as you could buy your new home and still have money left over to aid your living.
I must admit to liking to security of owning my own home, have to reckon on paying regular maintenance charge as I am in flat. That does, and will increase, but nowhere near as much as rent is likely to.
Rented property is always subject to checks by landlord as to how you are looking after it, some will not permit pictures, etc to be put on walls. Repairs may not be carried out - and, of course, the Landlord could quite suddenly decide he wants you out.
Equally as you talk about mobility problems, it is much easier having any necessary changes to your own property than to a rented one.
Be intresting to see what other people say.

I don't know about renting as I was helping my aunt look to sell her ground floor flat and buy a retirement flat, but this website might be useful to you. My aunt is 83 and having looked at the retirement flats I can't see any advantage to it - also disappointing many do not have 24/7 wardens. I have encouraged her to stay in her home and investigate private carers instead.

housingcare.org/elderly-uk-vacancies-rent-housing

A lot of retirement flats are very small so unsuitable if someone becomes in need of a walking frame or wheelchair. This can apply whether owned or rented. There are also restrictions on selling and fairly large service charges usually. I think a ground floor one bed ordinary flat is better.

When thinking about retirement properties, whether rented or bought, there are often a lot of expenses to consider such as maintenance charges. I have a friend who has bought property in a retirement village but has to pay nearly £600 per month for the use of communal facilities, some cleaning etc. I think that is why these type of places are often cheaper than other places on the market that are for anyone to purchase.

My MIL bought a retirement home when FIL started to show signs of dementia, later he went into a care home where he died and MIL continued to live in her apartment until she came to us for her last three years. It took two years to sell her place and she had to continue paying the service charge of around £600 pm. Fortunately this wasn't a problem but for anyone having to go into a care home, I think it would be a worry. she also lost money on it. The big problem was that although she had excellent health, when she caught norovirus (lots of the residents went down with it) she was effectively put in lockdown and no staff member was able to go in to help her and my SIL, who was nearest, was abroad. It was a very difficult situation. We are hoping to stay in our own home and buy in care as required.

A word of advice we moved my DH two relatives to be nearer to us. New properties were being built with separate housing associations. Lovely bungalows they were both purchasing them separately. A percentage of the property was owned by the association the relatives payed about 75% It was great when they lived there but when they passed away it was not so great.

There were rules and regulations in the small print that none of us had looked at. Every potential buyer was scrutinised and they had very stringent requirements. It took us a long time to sell both of the properties nearly three years. All that time meant a chunk of money from our relatives estate had gone in service bills. The best way to describe it is a total rip off.

A lot depends on the location of the retirement flats. My MiL was very happy in her retirement flat. As much socialisation as she wanted but her own 2 bedroom place to retreat to if she wanted to. Discreet alarm systems included.
We sold it the first month it was advertised. Not meaning to sound smug. It was a good place and flats for sale were always snapped up. It's not always a problem.

After seeing my DFiL money dwindle from 280k to nearly nothing as he is paying for his own care home I would always go for rental when I am ready to retire to a smaller place, I will then spend all my money before I may need to go into care so I get the benefit of all of those savings myself. I really get upset to think a friend of DFiL is in a comparable care home, he has never worked in his life and came from a council property to the care home. Makes no sense and seems very unfair?

A lot of retirement villages have apartments to rent, so you could always rent to start with and see how you like it? And if you do and think it's somewhere you'd like to be permanently, then you could buy. A word of warning - which others have also mentioned - a lot of retirement villages have hefty monthly service charges (my mum's is £400 a month, for example) and they also charge fees for a parking space, in some cases (£250 a year at my mum's place). And there isn't always someone on site 24/7, so make a list of the things you'd expect/want before you take the plunge. And all the best! It's a difficult decision and you are right to take advice and to consider the different options.

My old mum lives in a sheltered housing complex - rented. They label it ‘independent living’. You have your own flat and can decorate as you wish. There are communal areas and things going on if she wants to join in. There are carers on site providing 24/7 assistance where needed. You only pay for the care/assistance you need. Best move she ever made. It’s secure, social, easy to manage and supportive when needed.

We now live in a rented property having in lived in our own (mortgaged) homes for 35+ years. We are not allowed to decorate it, so have to live with Magnolia walls in every room. We have been put off putting up many pictures or wall fittings because you have to fill in the holes afterwards and then repaint the whole wall they are on (in the same coloured magnolia), because spot painting looks awful. If the landlord can complain about any damage to fixtures and fittings when you come to leave, you can loose a large part of, or even all of your deposit when it comes to you leaving. The landlord can change their mind about wanting to rent out their property, so you always have the stress of not feeling completely safe in your home. Most landlords will either themselves, or have their agents, visit you twice a year to check the property. If one of the appliances, services or fabric of the property need maintenance or fixing, you are dependant on your landlord for how quickly that is done - our landlady has to have several estimates from trades people before she has any work done, she usually goes for the cheapest, so it can take quite a long time to get something fixed, and it is often not of particularly good standard (some landlords are much better than this, and some much worse). Most private landlords will not allow pets.
The only benefit that I can think of, and why we are in rented accommodation, is that I became disabled so needed a bungalow, and even though we were selling a 3 bedroom detached house, we could not afford to buy a 2 bedroom bungalow, but we could (only just) afford to rent one.

What Polarbear2 describes sounds great if that would suit you (but beware of any service charges, your capital can get depleted very quickly). We could not look at something like that as we have our SEN son and his SEN partner living with us, and they are both under 40 years old.

When I was looking for my aunt the service charges varied wildly - from £300 to a whopping £2800 every six months.
Lots of research needed and careful reading of the small print.

We have a very nice home nearby, part of the Abbeyfield group, it's about £1400 per month. I think you get a private room, lounge, and a kitchenette. Two meals per day are provided, plus on site carers.

My neighbour opposite is about 85 and having broken her hip a few years ago, now walks with a frame and seems very frail. When I moved in a few weeks ago she said she was going to try Abbeyfield out - but has been put off by the two week isolation required before going in.

If you’d be looking at actual retirement properties, then I’ve heard more than once that renting may well preferable.

That’s because they can be very difficult to sell for anything like you paid, especially if bought new, which can cause massive headaches if later, heaven forbid, you needed to go into a care home, since hefty service/maintenance charges would still need to be paid no matter how long it took to sell.

I have no idea what level of rents are charged, so they may be excessive anyway, especially with the extra charges added, but presumably at least you wouldn’t be at the mercy of an ordinary landlord who suddenly decided he wanted to sell.

Scentia

After seeing my DFiL money dwindle from 280k to nearly nothing as he is paying for his own care home I would always go for rental when I am ready to retire to a smaller place, I will then spend all my money before I may need to go into care so I get the benefit of all of those savings myself. I really get upset to think a friend of DFiL is in a comparable care home, he has never worked in his life and came from a council property to the care home. Makes no sense and seems very unfair?

It is very unfair indeed, and is something that the government needs to sort out, IMO.

The trouble for the OP is that doing this could be seen as deliberately avoiding paying for care, whereas spending as you go instead of saving means that you get care for free.

IMO it is very wrong that you should have to do it, but it would probably make sense to take advice before spending your own money on yourself if there is a reasonable expectation that you might need care in the foreseeable future.

I could never choose to rent - there is so little if any security as a tenant and as we get older, and may need particular adaptations, that’s an even more important consideration. As a pp said, you can adapt your own property as you wish ( not you mention decorate it and hang what you want on the walls) Obviously social housing is different but there’s not much of that available even if you qualify.

When I was looking for a flat - I did check out a couple of local Sheltered Living properties. These are where we all have our own flat -usually quite small, and very small kitchens, but have the shared facilities of lounge, often regular entertainment, etc. None of these offered 24/7 on-site Managers (wardens in old money!!). They had these Mon-Friday 9.00 am - 5.00 pm). Outside those hours there was a private company that provided access via pulls in each room. All had a launderette area, so did not need to have your own washing machine and dryer - no room for these in the kitchenettes anyway. I found the flats very cramped, and the service charges very high. Most had only one bedroom, although each block did have a few with two bedrooms. They all had a visitors suite (bedroom with en-suite) for guests to stay in, but these had to be booked well in advance and usually, only one in each facility). None of these provided garages for cars, and usually just a first-come, first-served number of parking spaces

I went for a normal two-bedroom flat, large rooms, cheaper on maintenance charges, my own garage, visitors parking. lovely large balcony. Can use my washing machine as and when I wish (even in the middle of the night if necessary), in my own kitchen. Central position. Good communal spirit with all living here. Doors are wide enough to take a wheelchair should it be necessary. Can alway buy in care services in required in future. Totally independence as to how I decorate and when I die will be easy for my children to sell.

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Hi all, not sure how active this thread still is but if anyone is thinking of buying one of these sorts of property, pay particular attention to how the service charge will increase over time NOT just the advertised rate in the here and now. There are also sell-on fees (sometimes up to 3 or 4% of the property value) when you do come to sell which will eat into your profits substantially. The idea is that they are a sort of reverse sinking fund but with the amount of money some people end up paying for service charges this is dubious to say the least.

I wonder if you have thought about the possibility of equity release? You mentioned problems with finance, but as you own your present property you could be pleasantly surprised just how much it has risen in value, even over the past year.

You could then stay where you are and use at least some of the money to future proof your house to make it more suitable for you in years to come.

These days you have the choice of either paying the interest on the loan, or letting the debt build up.

It’s not suitable for everyone of course but it might be something you could consider.

We have also never rented and certainly wouldn’t want to start now for all the reasons others have given.

I like to plan ahead…looking at Hubby and I going into renting on a retirement village…
Luckily we have around 12/ 18 months to plan the move…

I would like to ask all readers who rent in any retirement villages their views..positives negatives etc..no matter how small..