Inherited Macartney&Stone retirement flat - anyone rented one out?

[damemaggiescurledupperlip]

We inherited a one-bed retirement flat from DH's parents over a year ago. It has been listed for sale since then, but no real interest.

An alternative would be to rent it out. Has anyone done this in a Macartney and Stone development?

(I don't want to be a landlord, but the ground rent, service charges and double council tax do stack up. We have lowered the price twice, but nothing in the block is selling.)

£125 per month service charge is incredibly cheap for these things

Yes some of them you literally cant give them away

My DM is in a M&S 2 bed flat. The flat is lovely, spacious and with a great aspect, has a huge balcony she sits out in in warm weather and is located very centrally and she potters out for coffee in town most days when she’s feeling well. It’s all set up for less mobile people with lifts to all floors and nice wide corridors and no steps. There is a restaurant serving decent 3 course lunches every day, so DM doesn’t need to do any cooking. There is a large residents lounge and DM has made friends and can socialise a little with other residents, they do knit and natter, show films, play games, DM spends quite a bit of time in the lounge doing jigsaws. The staff are great and so flexible, when DM is off colour they will bring lunch up to her flat, and they do checks as many times a day as DM needs that week. They’ll pop in and make her a sandwich for her supper, do laundry and fetch small amounts of shopping. All of these things are an extra cost above the service charge, but the alternative is a nursing home, which is higher cost again. The main thing is DM is happy there and feels secure and they call me if something is up. DM will probably need to go into a home at some point, but the longer she can stay put the better. I’m not anticipating inheriting anything of value!

@EndorsingPRActice that's lovely. I so wish I could have had this for my elderly parents, but it got much too late too soon, for a move in their case. As someone who doesn't need or want an inheritance I wouldn't much have cared what happened afterwards, so long as they were safe and comfortable.

It makes sense that people would want to rent them, if buying leads almost inevitably to a capital loss. The agents tell me they have a queue of wannabe renters.

It will sell at the right price. Did you reduce much in the year that it was on the market?

Leasehold doesn't exist in Scotland. There are other issues to be aware of but not leasehold. Edinburgh has a lot of apartments and purpose-built flats, even in the Georgian tenements.

your post can be read another way... you saw your inheritance vanishing so talked MIL out of it and instead of a comfortable serviced home she got.... what?

I think you’ll find the less expensive ones don’t have communal space or catering.

DH (80) and I (not far off) would love to move into a retirement flat. We can’t afford M&S, our home won’t raise enough to buy one, and our income isn’t enough to support all the charges. We’d like to rent, but we are excluded from most social housing because we are owner occupiers. Our house is our only asset, if we could rent, we could self fund. Not very hopeful.

Would your local council be interested? Worth checking. M&Stone service charges are an absolute rip off, not to mention cost for what it is… most don’t even have a normal shaped kitchen in order to get even more flats crammed in.

They are hard to sell because of the service charges, it’s not the same type of asset as a standard home to inherit and there’s lots of bad press. Service charges also unregulated for the sector, I believe. If there’s lots of communal areas (which there often are) then the costs are very high. These villages don’t offer much more than staying in your own home when you age, I don’t think they have on-site care provider and you can use any dom care provider. They used to be popular development concept as you could avoid having to deliver affordable housing but that’s all changed now.

Good lord I have no expectation, want or need of an inheritance from my MIL 🤣

Good luck OP. It is a big scam, MIL has one and we'll have to go through this as well. I can see there's a need for elderly appropriate housing but these companies are just sharks. They should be rental only, but clearly less profit in that. **

If the estate agents have potential renters already, that sounds like the best approach.
Good luck. 🍀

There’s a Bristol charity that offers similar with 24 hour porters on site etc etc tye difference is that you have to resell to the charity at the price you paid but they take possession within weeks so no worries about disposing of it. I’m a bit out of touch now but I thought it was a fair model.

Do not become a landlord without first understanding the new renters rights ad limited grounds for possession coming in force from May.

This thread brings back the nightmare of selling my late Mum's Mcarthy Stone Flat. Took 18 months to sell - luckily she had brought at rock bottom price - so the loss was around 3OK. Others in the block lost over 100k. My late Great Aunts - sold up there houses and went into private rental flats in their 70s which better suited their life style. Something I would consider doing.

We are both 80 and if my DH dies before me I want to move into this type of accommodation. I don’t want to buy one but I would love to rent one, There must be lots of people who are in my position. Desperate for this type of accommodation but too scared to buy.

I would also add that being a landlord to an elderly person will be much better. Than to the usual rental market. I would be want to stay there until I die. I would be realistic and know that my landlord would still be looking for a buyer while I was renting.

Or can’t afford to. As we are an aging population, it would make sense to build retirement flats for rent. There is a fabulous new block here, but it’s council owned and owner occupiers are excluded from applying. I’m going to investigate private rentals.

My Father in Law lived in a M and S flat for the last 5 years of his life. He loved it. He enjoyed being able to pop down into the communal lounge or gardens and have a chat with other residents.
After he died we decided to rent the flat out. We have had the same tenant for the last 10 years. After paying service charges and ground rent we don’t make a huge amount of money. We realise if we decide to sell at any point we will struggle to get anything like the amount he paid for it.

MIL has one, it is glorious, really lovely property, safe, warm, likeminded people as neighbours, she loves it.

One day it will be DH’s, and will be an absolute nightmare to get rid of.

DM will probably need to go into a home at some point, but the longer she can stay put the better.

@EndorsingPRActice Yes, similar situation with my Dad. He feels safe in his flat, the staff are lovely, and amenities are on his doorstep (shops, doctor’s surgery, etc. around the corner). He really doesn’t want to go into a home, although his health may dictate that in a couple of years. He’s determined to hang on in his flat as long as possible -many people do with carers coming in.

A family lived in the other flat? This doesn't sound like a retirement place unless the whole family were over 60...