The bereaved families losing thousands on retirement flats they can’t sell

For many older people, retirement flats are a way to downsize and maintain independence into old age.

But for their families, after suffering the pain of their loss – they can prove to be an agonising burden that are increasingly hard to sell – while still incurring costs.

The i Paper has heard from multiple families who have spent months trying to sell inherited retirement properties to no avail, even after reducing the prices by tens of thousands of pounds.

Retirement homes are properties typically designed for people over 55 and are often sold on a leasehold basis, meaning they often come with service charges, and owners don’t own the land on which their home is built.

Experts told The i Paper in some cases, flats purchased for more than £300,000 were having to be reduced in price by 50 per cent to find a suitable buyer. 

Analysis run by Hamptons earlier this year found that in 2025, on average, it took 157 days for someone to find a buyer for a retirement flat, with the average sold price sitting at £183,569.

The reasons for the difficulties with selling are plentiful – a small pool of buyers and in some cases high service charges are only two.

The i Paper has delved into the issue in more depth below.

How difficult is it to sell a retirement flat?

Accountancy firm Zmarlty analysed the sales of retirement flats from one UK developer, and found 291 flats in 52 developments were bought new between 2015 and 2025 and have since been resold.

Out of all 291 of them, 89 per cent resold for less than the first owner paid.

Victor Crosby is one person who has seen his parent buy a retirement flat then sell it for less. His mum’s flat was on the market for three years between 2023 and 2026, starting at £150,000. It was subsequently reduced twice.

The 78-year-old from Hertfordshire had a bit of interest, and had one offer that fell through due to delays with the probate process.

His mother bought the flat for £152,000 eight years ago, but given the lack of interest Victor had to drop the asking price to £120,000.

Despite the flat being unoccupied, Victor was still liable to pay for the service charges on the flat amounting to £6,000 a year.

In 2022, Victor – who is a pensioner himself – had to take a £10,000 loan out to pay for the service charges.

“It was coming out of my pension and out of my bank account. I’m not a millionaire; it was getting worse and I was running out of money. I wasn’t sleeping at night,” Victor admitted.

The pensioner asked the property developer if they would suspend the service charges until the flat was sold, but according to Victor, they refused. Council tax on the property was also mounting, costing Victor around £6,000.

He said: “You should not have to pay management fees because you are not using the property or any amenities or should be liable for the council tax. There is no one in there.

“For a company like that to charge people £6,000 a year when it is empty is disgusting.”

In the end, Victor sold the flat to cash home buyer service, Sell House Fast, for £40,000 this year simply to get it off his hands.

Narrow buyer market and high service charges

Age rules of some developments mean people younger than 60 or in some cases 55 cannot occupy the properties, which creates a much narrower resale market.

Property expert Jonathan Rolande said: “Many buyers in that bracket need to sell their own home first, which slows every deal and makes a fall through more likely.”

Service charges are also a major issue, as in Victor’s case. Hamptons analysis found out of the retirement flats sold this year, the average annual service charge was £4,090 – but some can be far higher.

Jack Malnick, managing director of Sell House Fast, said: “In the case of some managed retirement properties, which are strangled by service charges up to £15,000 per year, sellers are struggling massively.”

David Fell, lead analyst at Hamptons, added ground rents – periodic fees paid by a leasehold homeowner to the freeholder – of some retirement properties tend to be high to cover the high proportion of non-saleable space in a development, such as dining rooms, lounges and guest suites.

“This tends to mean that many retirement flats have failed to track wider house price growth over the longer term. As such, they are less valuable as a ‘nest egg’ to be passed onto the next generation,” he explained.

Renting not always an option

Rolande highlighted another reason retirement flats aren’t attracting buyers is because many leases restrict who can rent, or charge a fee to sublet, so families cannot always cover costs by finding a tenant while they wait for a buyer.

“Buy-to-let investors shun them for this reason,” he added.

Even when they can be rented, issues arise as familes often can’t get a rental fee that covers the running costs and ongoing maintenance.

‘Like a millstone round my neck’

Sue Hill, 65, from Hampshire, has had to rent out her father’s retirement flat after being unable to sell for months.

The flat was purchased in 2016 for £380,000, with Sue listing it in February 2025 for £320,000.

Sue said: “There were no viewings. In August, we dropped the price to £249,000. Again, no viewings. Eventually, in November, we gave up and rented it out. After service changes and other expenses, we just about break even.”

She charges £1,300 in rent, with ground rent costing £550 a year and monthly service charges coming to £284.

Sue said: “I can’t close down dad’s estate on a practical level, but personally it is really distressing. I feel I can’t move on in my grief as I constantly have to sort things out with the flat. My dad would have been so disappointed. It feels like a millstone around my neck.”

Things to consider

So with all these issues with retirement flats – is it ever worth buying one?

Rolande said despite the issues with reselling retirement properties, he did not necessarily consider them to be “bad homes”, but they could be bad investments.

He said: “Anyone thinking of buying should check sold prices in the same block on the Land Registry, ask how long recent sales took, and read the lease for event fees and letting rules. Look at the service charge history over five years, not one.”

Fell also pointed out that older people looking for a little bit more support may still find themselves better off overall living in a retirement flat once the costs of alternative care are factored in.

“The relatively high service charges attached to many developments are a drop in the ocean compared to the costs of moving into a care home. For anyone who doesn’t need the level of support provided by a care home, the purchase of a retirement flat may prove a much more cost-effective option,” he said.

If you are thinking about a move to specialist accommodation, it’s important to understand there are different models of housing for older people available.

James Lloyd, head of policy and communications of the Associated Retirement Community Operators (ARCO), said: “It’s crucial to ensure that all the fees are being transparently disclosed before you buy, so check whether an operator is a member of the ARCO Consumer Code, which oversees transparency among providers and is part of the Chartered Trading Standard Institute’s approved code scheme.”