Retirement villages?

[cupcake78]

My dm is considering buying a house in a retirement village. It's a new development. The house is nice and fit for purpose.

It's just all so expensive and I'm having trouble seeing that the costs are worth it. I can't help think as she gets older and the development ages the desirability will decrease and we (dsis and I) will be left in debt.

Anyone have any experience of how retirement villages work and do properties of 20 years resell?

I'm in Australia, where there are lots of retirement villages, and their rep is shite. It looks like the same might well apply in the UK. It's all about getting the old dears to move in, then making it hard for the rels to sell up when the parents dies.

Proceed with caution.

The problem is that when you come to sell you have an even more restricted market to sell to, as only retirees can buy.

My DM moved into such a village. It was lovely but boy, was it an absolute nightmare to sell after she unexpectedly passed away. With hindsight I wish she had moved into rented accomodation for what was a brief period. Took us longer to sell it than she lived in it.

That's exactly what I thought! I'm also concerned about what appears to be the ever increasing service charge. Not to mention the resale charges and clauses.

I can't help think its paying a lot of money for the same resources that could be found by living in a town community and getting socially involved without seeing everyone you socialise with 24/7 or being surrounded by people who keep dying as the population inevitably ages.

With the cost of what is essentially a terraced house she could buy a bungalow in a nice part of a town. Do it up and still afford to pay for gardeners, personal safety alarms etc. Still having more left over for holidays.

I'm struggling to support her on this one.

I can't help thinking she's getting done over but she seems really keen.

Many of them now have a large resale charge.

MY MIL lived in a small courtyard development for retireees. It was fine when FIL was alive but when she was on her own she got very lonely. The neighbours were nice & she had some contact & socialising but she missed the bustle of an ordinary street. She misse dkids playing out, traffic going past etc etc.

FWIW my in laws moved from their not very nice area in a not very nice city, into a bungalow in a more attractive part of the country, on a quiet street in a little town (near to their daughter). They are kind people but not the most outgoing. Anyway, it has worked out extremely well, they have bonded with the neighbours (many also retired), enjoy no longer worrying about getting broken into etc. It's true they have each other, but also they have benefited from some of the advantages of retrement villages (better safety, like minded neighbours) without the costs, by picking their location carefully.