Families inheriting retirement flats in the UK are being left with unsellable properties and mounting debts, as the Express launches a new legislative campaign to 'Stop the Retirement Flat trap'.
Soaring costs and falling values
Janet Talman, 58, from Surrey, inherited a two-bedroom retirement flat in Maidenhead, Berkshire, after her parents died. Her mother Ann, 84, died from ovarian cancer, and her father Neil, 85, from pneumonia. The property was bought for £400,000 in August 2022, but four years on it is on the market for £175,000 with no buyer in sight. Service charges have risen from £846 to over £1,000 a month, totalling £13,147 a year. The family also pays £525 annual ground rent and an empty homes premium doubling council tax to around £5,230 per year.
“My dad would be turning in his grave if he knew where we’re at with this,” Janet says. “He would never have gone down this route had he known we were going to end up like this.”
Widespread problem
In England and Wales, an estimated 10,000 long-term empty properties exist in privately owned retirement developments. Age restrictions and high service charges trap inheritors in a catch-22: unable to live in, rent out, or sell the property.
Gordon Taylor, 72, from Hassocks, West Sussex, inherited his mother Joan's retirement apartment in Burgess Hill, bought for £225,000 in 2015. After two years of trying to sell, the asking price is now £170,000. Around 30% of the development's flats are empty. Gordon believes the developer, McCarthy & Stone, prioritises new sales over resales, creating a “ghost town” atmosphere.
McCarthy & Stone, owned by US private equity firm Lone Star Funds, said: “We provide the same high standard of service to both our new home buyers and our resale customers. We do not prioritise one over the other.” The firm said its resales team helped sell 800 properties last year. Lone Star Funds declined to comment.
Shared ownership complications
Ian Strong, 73, spent four years trying to sell his late parents' retirement flat in Chester, Cheshire, which was 75% owned by them and 25% by the government. He described the process as an “utter disaster”. The shared ownership flat could not be occupied or rented out by the inheritors, and service charges rose by 65%. He eventually sold after reducing the price from £112,500 to £90,000, losing half the inheritance his parents intended for his children.
“My mum and dad worked very hard and they wanted the money from the flat to go to my children,” he says. Instead, they only got half.
Another owner, speaking anonymously, bought a one-bedroom retirement apartment in 2016 for an elderly relative. After his death, she accepted an offer for less than £50,000 – half the purchase price. “We are almost hardly daring to breathe because we are terrified of losing this [the sale],” she says.
Campaign for reform
The Express is campaigning for legislation to tackle restrictions and lower fees. The Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government said: “Far too many leaseholders, including those in retirement housing, are facing unreasonable and inflated charges that undermine confidence and make homes harder to sell. That’s why we’re taking forward reforms to drive up transparency and strengthen protections.”
Alero Orimoloye, senior legal adviser at the Leasehold Advisory Service, advises buyers to check lease clauses carefully, especially mandatory 'exit fees'. Adam Cliff of The Empty Homes Network calls for legislative reform to reduce standing charges on empty properties and amend age restrictions.
For Janet Talman, the financial uncertainty has delayed grieving. “Three years on, we still haven’t got complete closure on our parents’ passing away,” she said. “And that’s also quite difficult to deal with emotionally.”
