Niche market: Retirement community property sales
The development looks attractive, the flat is affordable and everyone is impressed with the facilities — but what happens when your elderly relative no longer needs the unit? European Consumer Claims (ECC) warns families to investigate the cost of getting out just as carefully as the cost of getting in.
Elderly living solution
Mum or dad cherishes their independence, but everyone understands they need more help than they used to. Retirement community living offers the answer for many families. You find an apartment that ticks all the boxes. Your parent moves in, and everything is great.
Until it isn’t.
Nothing lasts forever. A parent’s mental and physical capabilities can deteriorate to the point where they need a greater level of care that the community is able to provide. One day, as much as we dread the event, they may even pass away.
At this point, whoever is responsible for the apartment begins to understand what experts have been warning about for years: When buying a retirement community property, the purchase price is only part of the equation.
So how do we protect ourselves from the downsides of retirement community property ownership? The best way is to know in advance what to ask, when to ask it and how to confirm what you have been told.
What you need to know before buying into a retirement community
- What have comparable flats actually resold for? Don’t rely on the developer’s new-build asking prices. Find completed resales within the same development and compare them with their original purchase prices.
- How long are properties taking to sell? This is particularly important because service charges can continue while a property remains unsold. There are documented cases of families paying substantial charges for years while trying to dispose of inherited retirement properties.
- What is the service charge today — and what’s its history? Ask for five years of charges history rather than simply accepting the current figure. This lets you see whether costs have been rising substantially.
- What happens to the service charge after death or permanent departure? A family may assume that financial responsibility largely ends when their relative dies or moves into care. It doesn’t necessarily do so while the property remains in the estate.
- Is there an exit/event/deferred fee? The Law Commission found that event fees could be buried in complicated leases, disclosed too late and poorly understood by consumers. And the issue is still live: in June 2026 the Housing Minister told Parliament that the Government was considering the Law Commission recommendations on regulating event fees.
- Who is actually allowed to buy the property from you? Age restrictions and other eligibility requirements inherently reduce the potential resale market. Families need to understand that they’re not necessarily buying something with the same resale market as an ordinary flat.
- Can an independent solicitor explain every future financial obligation? It is not enough to merely ‘have a solicitor’. It is important to explicitly ask your solicitor to identify every charge triggered by ownership, occupation, subletting, departure, death and resale and put the answers into plain English.
Greg Wilson is a consumer expert and director of European Consumer Claims, the firm challenging unfair behaviour from UK retirement community property developers. Greg believes it is crucial to have written confirmation on all the key points: “Ask the salesperson the following questions, and get the answers in writing,” advises Greg. “Sending a follow up email after your first meeting with the salesperson is an effective way to do this.”
Greg gives the following example of an email to send, covering the eight most crucial aspects of a retirement community property purchase:
Dear XXXX
It was lovely to meet you, and we are interested in the property you showed us. This is a significant amount of money for us to spend, and therefore we would like some more information in order to make the right decision for everyone involved.
Please can you answer the following questions for us by return of email?
- What did the last five comparable properties originally cost and what did they eventually sell for?
- What were the service charges five years ago and what are they now?
- Can the service charge increase without a fixed upper limit?
- What fees will be payable when the property is sold?
- If my parent dies, who pays the service charge until the property sells?
- Can we use any estate agent when we sell?
- Are there restrictions on who can buy the property?
- Is there any circumstance in which the management company/developer receives a percentage of the resale price?
Please can you also send over a copy of the contract for our solicitor to have a look at?
Yours sincerely….
If the sales person doesn’t answer any particular question in a straightforward manner, or seems otherwise evasive, this in itself should be considered a red flag. It would be highly unwise to proceed with the sale until you get clear, written answers to these questions
UK government interest
The good news is that the UK government has recently been paying more attention to this subject, and retirement-home exit fees were raised directly in the House of Commons on 15 June 2026, with an MP reporting a constituent’s late uncle’s property accumulating £15,000 in service charges while the estate was unable to dispose of it.
However until firm protective legislation has been proposed and signed into law, the onus is on consumers to protect themselves.
If you feel you have been treated unfairly or dishonestly by a retirement community property developer, and have lost money because of the purchase, get in touch with the team at Retirement Property Advice Centre (ECC’s retirement property division) for a no-obligation consultation.
