Research from online care platform Lottie reveals the country’s most popular retirement villages and the difference in how residents Over 55 pay to live in them.
Retirement living is not cheap in England with the average price to buy in of nearly £250,000 (A$483,000) for a one-bed apartment, or more than £2,600 ($5000) a month to rent – and often with hefty service costs.
Birchgrove’s Queensgate Apartments, Sidcup, London (main photo), is the most searched for retirement village. It has a restaurant, bar, club room, wellness suite and library.
It offers one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments (although its website states only two- and three-bed options are available), with on-site support. Domestic help, such as cleaning, laundry and transportation, as well as personal care for dressing and washing, is available at an extra cost. Nursing care is not provided.
The apartments are only available to rent and cost at least £3,276 (A$6330) a month for a one-bed. Two-bed apartments cost £3,500 (A$6622) a month and three-beds cost £3,750 (A$7246) a month. This figure includes all bills, as well as general maintenance and an hour’s support each week.
They are twice the price of a private rental one-bedroom flat in the area.
Oak Retirement’s Friary Meadow, Titchfield, Hampshire
The second most popular retirement village is located in a small village in Hampshire.
All residents have access to the restaurant, bar, cafe, cinema room and 24/7 on-site help. Residents get 90 minutes of help each week for tasks such as laundry and cleaning. If you need more assistance, you can create tailored packages with fully qualified carers.
The cheapest property for sale is a two-bedroom 70sqm first-floor apartment for £350,000 (A$676,000). Larger, more luxurious properties cost up to £615,000 (A$1.8 million). Outside of Friary Meadow, private two-bedroom properties in the area cost as little as £225,000 (A$434,497).
It is possible to rent at Friary Meadow from £1,200 (A$2317) a month, which is about £2,400 (A$4,635) more a year than a two-bed private rental property nearby.
There are extra costs. A service charge covering building maintenance and staff salaries is about £535 (A$1,033) a month for a two-bedroom property and £560 (A$1,082) for a three-bed, and it has to be paid until the property is rerented.
If the property is bought, a resident will pay a 3% “exit fee” when it is resold.
It is an extra £250 (A$483) a year for a car parking space.
Lakeside Retirement Village, Ashford, Kent
With 6.9ha of grounds, including a private lake and nature reserve, residents also have access to a restaurant, communal lounge and concierge service.
A two-bed apartment costs between £328,500 (A$634592) and £369,000 (A$712,768), with an additional service charge of about £300 (A$580) a month. Residents also pay their own utilities and council tax and ground rent of £100 (A$193,000) a year. There is a 1% sales charge when the property is sold.
There is a waiting list for rented properties in the village, which start at £1,200 (A$2,318) a month (including service charge).
Two-bed flats in Ashford are on the market for between £150,000 (A$289,753) to £350,000 (A$676,112). Private rentals cost between £975 (A$1,883) and £1,600 (A$3,901) a month.
Bupa's Richmond Village, Northampton, Northamptonshire
It has award-winning gardens, an on-site coffee shop, restaurant, hair salon, library, craft studio. There is a daily activities programme run by a team.
Anyone over 55 can buy or rent. The cheapest property available, a one-bedroom first-floor flat, costs £165,000 (A$318,759), while a two-bed, two-bath apartment costs up to £395,000 (A$762,871). Rent is from about £1,000 (A$1,931) a month. There are no rental properties currently available.
On the private market, nearby two-bed units cost between £140,000 (A$270,327) and £210,000 (A$405,537) to buy.
The company charges a purchase or sale fee. At purchase, the fee is 10% of the property’s value. If the resident decides to pay the fee when they sell, the cost depends on how long they have owned the property: less than a year adds 6%, less than two years an extra 8% and over two years 10%. The fee cost is calculated on the sale price.
Ground rent costs about £300 (A$479) a year, and the service charge – which covers the general maintenance of the village and its facilities, buildings insurance and emergency call-outs – costs nearly £7,000 (A$13,519) a year.
For an additional £580 (A$1,120) to £640 ($1,236) a week (depending on the size of the property purchased), a resident can buy Richmond’s “Lifestyle Package”, which pays for housekeeping, utility bills, laundry and meals.
