Why bungalows for sale are so neglected?

Elegran

Typical cost of hydraulic lift = £23,000 - £28,000.
Typical cost of stairlift = £2,000 - £7,000.

I'm not sure where a lift would go but it would be cheaper than moving.
Moving has its advantages, of course, but I was chatting to someone today who is going through the process and it is so stressful.

Elegran

I don't think anyone else is very keen on dentures either, but when my generation was younger, dentistry wasn't as advanced as it is today. If (more likely when) teeth were past mending, the gaps were filled by first a partial denture, then as more were lost, by a full one.

If the alternative is either paying a vast amount for implants or gumming your way through the rest of life, then needs must when the devil drives.

😁
DH has an implant, a whole set would require a second mortgage.

My childhood dentist in the 50s was an ex-army dentist and an absolute sadist. I inherited my father’s teeth (not literally!) and have had so many fillings over the years I have no idea how they have survived but have had only one tooth extracted (a molar so not visible). My current dentist said that I should go into my box with all my remaining teeth (such a nice turn of phrase). So I hope to avoid implants and dentures barring accidents, as did my father despite the numerous fillings.

I think it's true to say than many buyers will renovate completely, often moving walls and changing the use of rooms so there is absolutely no point in putting in new kitchens and bathrooms.
We live in a flat and our type of property has exactly the same type of buyer in this area as there are no bungalows locally.
Virtually every buyer over the past few years has completely gutted their property so any money spent prior to sale would be wasted. Our local estate agents advise sellers to clean thoroughly but do no more work.
Ours was a probate sale and the seller had painted it white and put down beige carpet everywhere which we removed during our building work. Fortunately they'd left the kitchen and bathroom which we eventually replaced.
Anyone with enough money (usually cash for older buyers) to buy a nice bungalow is likely to do the same as we did.

I must have missed them ones when I got mine lol it’s not just bungalow that can be bad my son and his wife have a neighbor who is 89. Her garden was a jungle she lives in one room so rest of house gets ignored. My son has done her garden. They do bits for her and she has a family who rarely visit her. My son has told one of her sons to get his butt into gear and help her like he says she’s not his family he can’t be there for her all the time they have busy work life’s and children to look after. My daughter inlaw said whoever gets her house will have work cut out. She really needs to be in care home but family won’t because it will be used to pay for her care

This is a stupid post, surprised it attracted some attention!

I was thinking about the views expressed in the opening post, in the context of another thread about equity release and what happens when borrowers have taken lifetime mortgages and live to very old age.

Over the last 20-25 years, house prices nationally have risen by an average of 6% p.a. A property worth £200,000 25 years ago could be worth £800,000 today.

What if that person had taken equity release 25 years ago? Equity release companies were pushing very hard for new business, just as they do no.

Let’s say the owner was aged 70 then. They could have borrowed up to 27% of the value of the house. Let’s say they borrowed £50,000. They could have spent it on anything but let’s say they did spend some of it on maintaining the house.

Any maintenance or improvements made to the property 25 years ago are likely to be worn and outdated by now, fixtures and fittings, ready for the skip, but the debt on a lifetime mortgage is still accruing. Let’s say the compound interest rate set for life was 8.5% (when the base rate was 5.5%). The loan of £50,000 has now turned into a debt of £400,000.

Yes, it still leaves equity of £400,000 before selling costs but it’s still half of the value of the house going to the lender.

Let’s say the owner hasn’t died but at 95 has gone into care and could live to 100. Family need to set aside at least £250,000 - £300,000 for anticipated care fees. (The proposed cap on care costs has been postponed for two years and could easily be postponed again.)

All of a sudden there’s not a great deal of money left. There’s little margin to reduce the sale price substantally and potentially little (or no) inheritance so where would the money to spruce up a property for sale come from?

When someone dies or goes into care, the usual terms of an equity release agreement require the loan to be repaid in twelve months. If it isn’t, there are additional penalties. In the example I have given, interest is now accruing at £30,000 a year - on a £50,000 loan.

One could argue that the executors or family would want to sell the propery quickly to stop debt accruing but there may be a minimum sum they need to raise to meet ongoing costs or to satisfy other debts of an estate.

My DH worked in a similar field to yours and we accept that we've spent slightly more on renovations than we could get back immediately. But renovating thoroughly, including new K and Bs, plaster, woodwork and decoration, means that maintenance will be very simple for some years. A classic kitchen won't need to be replaced and could be repainted if necessary.
Reducing maintenance as you get older is very important - simple tasks like climbing ladders to do painting work is no recommended for the over-eighties!

I was told is was illegal to enter my relative’s home due to another claim via a heir hunter. It fell into disrepair which wasn’t helped by squatter, moreover, the council was threatening to take it over. Fortunately, after 8 years things were sorted and from being the worst home in the street became the best one. The state of the home is sometimes out of the hands of the relatives.

We’ve been looking at bungalows in the Norfolk area. Good few non estate new builds (hooray) and many more in lovely condition, so think you’ve just been “unlucky” Lots of properties of all types are in awful condition

FarNorth

Of course, some of us would want to get in there, have the place cleared - and start a good old spring clean. We'd be breaking the law, though, to do anything before probate was granted.

Is that really true?
That it would be illegal to wash dishes or throw out perishable food, at the very least?
All that must, by law, sit there possibly for years if an old person is in care?

Then I must have broken the law when my mum passed away ! We continued to visit the house and started to sort through her personal belongings, my daughter wfh there as it was far quieter than our house and I’m pretty sure none of that was illegal. I was both an executor, along with the solicitor, and sole beneficiary. At no point did the solicitor tell us to enter or spend time in the house

Not to enter the house !

A very sobering post Caravansera. Not an unusual state of affairs at all, regrettably.

Oh how I thought the same about someone buying a bungalow in the north for £220000.no way here in Essex you would ever do that ,as you say they are sought after and dearer than houses.
Yet all we hear is how the north needs to level up and how impoverished they are !

Location is all in Norfolk Cossy. Some areas, such as where we live, have no public transport at all. As everywhere, some areas are very expensive and some very cheap.

The executor doesn’t have to wait for probate to be granted to do things like emptying the fridge and the dishwasher!

As executor my brother put mum’s house on the market before probate came through, but the sale could not be completed until he had probate. I wasn’t happy with it but his solicitor advised him to do that.

Bungalows are scarce. My arthritis made me give up driving and I was trapped in a village in my listed cottage. Determined to move to the nearby market town I was keen to buy a bungalow but discovered that virtually none had been built near the town centre since the 1970s. . Also they were expensive, mostly £3.500 to £4.500 at least This is Suffolk. The reason given is that builders won't build bungalows now as they take up too much land .People expect a garden and even as garage. Many retired people are tempted by l new, leasehold, " retirement flats". I was almost trapped but saw the dangers. Don't do it!. Now I am in a row of pretty two bed terrace houses built in 2002 bang in the town centre and freehld. I have a stairlift installed with a grant of almost £6.000. With a walking aid I can make it to the market, the cinema, M and S and am next door to the main library. It took a long time to achieve this and I am glad I pulled out of a bungalow on the edge of town requiring a bus trip to the centre.

Devon has many bungalows, but I've never seen one in the condition you mention...I wonder why?

Zoe65

Oh how I thought the same about someone buying a bungalow in the north for £220000.no way here in Essex you would ever do that ,as you say they are sought after and dearer than houses.
Yet all we hear is how the north needs to level up and how impoverished they are !

They earn less, and have less equity from the house they are selling to invest in a bungalow though, so yes, they are relatively impoverished.
Whereas, if you sell your house in Essex, you can move to the north and live a life of relative luxury in a beautiful bungalow and retain a lot of your capital too, if that’s your choice. It’s horses for courses.

My stepfather had to go into a care home due to worsening dementia then 2 years later my mother had to go in another home. Unfortunately they had sold 70% of the equity. The equity company wanted the money asap. The bungalow went on the market and had several offers. Unfortunately the two buyers the equity company chose both dropped out after a long drawn out buying process. We had taken all the appliances out as requested by the equity company and cleaned the house thoroughly. We finally got a cash buyer from the owner of another house on the avenue. Mum and stepdad had always kept their home and garden immaculate and spent a lot of money on improvements. Unfortunately they were left with very little money and the equity company were quids in. I would never sell to an equity company unless I was in dire need. My parents had some fantastic holidays and a second hand car with the money but are now living in council run homes as they can’t afford private care. All their pensions are taken and they are allowed £25 a week spends.

Many bungalows are bought by people in their twilight years and some don’t have sufficient funds or energy to maintain and update their dwellings. Probate properties can also be subject to dispute and ownership issues hindering any repairs and decorations. Developers don’t tend to include bungalows in their new estates so there is a historical supply and demand issue which means the available stock to our ageing population is not really fir for modern day tastes.

Zoe65

Oh how I thought the same about someone buying a bungalow in the north for £220000.no way here in Essex you would ever do that ,as you say they are sought after and dearer than houses.
Yet all we hear is how the north needs to level up and how impoverished they are !

It is a question on demand and supply. If houses in the North were any dearer, they wouldn't sell because no-one would be able to afford them, so sellers price them accordingly. The only buyers would be those relocating from areas with higher house prices, who could buy something bigger and better than the one they were selling for the same price. The south-east and around London are desirable areas where house-owners can commute to London, so they command higher prices.

Zoe65

Oh how I thought the same about someone buying a bungalow in the north for £220000.no way here in Essex you would ever do that ,as you say they are sought after and dearer than houses.
Yet all we hear is how the north needs to level up and how impoverished they are !

The reason why the properties in London and the South are so expensive is because UK is so London centric. All the good jobs are concentrated in one place and these jobs are not evenly distributed throughout the rest of the country.

The properties in the North are much cheaper but there are much less job opportunities. That is why the North remain impoverished.

I don’t even understand why a train ticket from Leicester to London St Pancras which takes 1 hour costs 4 to 7 times (up to £75 one way) more than one from Epsom in Surrey which also takes one hour.

This means if there is a job going in North London which requires 2 days in the office hybrid working, that job will go to someone living down south instead of someone living in the midlands who cannot afford the train tickets.

I recently found out that an impoverished market town near where we live has their request for a regeneration fund rejected in favour of some leafy London county which is ridiculous.

What a pity you don’t live near to me in Leicestershire and you could look at mine.
When we were looking some 12 or so years ago we were finding a similar problem but mostly, for us, it was a lack of bungalows for sale. We visited the one we bought about four times before I said, what about if we do …… etc., Sharp intake of breath from my husband but we went ahead, lived on a building site for 4 months during the winter months and vowed, never again ! But it works perfectly now for what is just me here. I was so thankful over the years that we went ahead with it as my husband developed vascular dementia and Parkinson’s and I dread to think how I would have managed for the 5 years he was ill before passing away last November.
Sometimes it pays to try and look beyond what is there !