Is the ground rent ban responsible? Sebastian O’Kelly I guess when you stand down as boss of a publicly quoted retirement housing company that has seen profits fall from £110 million to £65-£80 the headline-writing punsters are not going to miss a trick. So, Clive Fenton, 60, McCarthy and Stone’s CEO, is being “pensioned off” […]
Points to consider when buying a new retirement flat …
June 8, 2018 By
By Michael Epstein There can be no doubt that the new build and post 2010(non Firstport managed) McCarthy & Stone developments offer very good facilities are well managed and can offer residents a good quality of life. Increasingly extra services are being offered designated as “Assisted Living” No one can expect these services to come […]
Please exempt retirement housebuilders from ground rent ban, pleads Sir Desmond Swayne
May 17, 2018 By
Senior Tory MP Sir Desmond Swaine has pleaded with the Communities Secretary to consider exempting volume retirement housebuilders from the ban on new ground rents. The MP for New Forest West – coincidentally not far from McCarthy and Stone’s Trump-style HQ in Bournemouth – asked in the Tuesday housing debate: “On new build leaseholds, is […]
Complain to Advertising Standards Authority about misleading ‘home ownership’ when applied to retirement leasehold tenancies
April 19, 2018 By
A veteran leasehold campaigner from Carlex earliest days, Susan Wood, has just repeated a complaint to the Advertising Standards Authority about leasehold tenancies being described as “home ownership” that she first made in 2012. Her first complaint concerned Churchill Retirement. Now she complains about McCarthy and Stone describing their flats in an advert in Saga […]
Love over 50: something we can agree about with McCarthy and Stone
April 19, 2018 By
Respect where it is due. Well done McCarthy and Stone for promoting love over 50. Here is the link to the full article: Dating for over 50s: how to find love in later life – McCarthy & Stone Love in later life can seem daunting. If you’ve been married for some years and are recently […]
McCarthy and Stone: we want you to succeed, but you don’t need ground rents
April 16, 2018 By
By Sebastian O’Kelly Trustee, Leasehold Knowledge Partnership The retirement house builder McCarthy and Stone says that it is struggling, the newspapers are reporting. Profits are down more than 50 per cent for the first half of this year. And it is worried about the long-term implications of the government’s undertaking to reform ground rents, setting […]
ARCO snubs McCarthy and Stone / Churchill by saying there is no need for ground rents
January 31, 2018 By
The trade body the Association of Retirement Community Operators announced yesterday that ground rents are “not essential” in retirement housing and it backs the government in ending them. The announcement directly contradicts McCarthy and Stone and Churchill. Both have argued that they need ground rents for the viability of retirement housing projects and without them […]
Ground rents are essential to McCarthy and Stone’s business model
September 8, 2017 By
… but leaseholders are concerned it is selling freeholds to anonymous buyers … McCarthy and Stone complains about ‘right to reply’ to LKP / Better Retirement Housing articles McCarthy and Stone told The Times yesterday that there would be fewer of its form of retirement flats if the government reduces ground rents to a minimal […]
Pensioners hammered with 88% rise in ground rents
August 4, 2017 By
… Often in sites with dismal resale values Thousands of pensioners living in older retirement properties are facing a massive hike in ground rents: 88 per cent is not unusual. The older leases of mass retirement housing builder McCarthy and Stone are kicking in with huge hikes in ground rents. Ground rents at Churchill sites […]
Our ground rents are fair, says McCarthy and Stone (even though they go up to £600 and are for no service whatsoever)
August 2, 2017 By
DCLG Consultation Paper On Leasehold And Ground Rents – Statement – McCarthy & Stone See our response to the DCLG consultation paper on Leasehold and Ground Rents It is a fair bet that McCarthy and Stone will be making a strong submission to the DCLG into the leasehold houses and ground rent scandals firmly urging […]
4% of McCarthy and Stone earnings come from ground rents
July 26, 2017 By
The announcement yesterday by Sajid Javid, Communities Secretary, that he is to ban the sale of leasehold houses and reduce ground rents on new properties to “as low as” zero resulted from months of work by the Leasehold Knowledge Partnership. It will have a marked effect on McCarthy and Stone, according to an article in […]
Campaign against retirement leasehold exploitation is ‘slanted’ over retirement resale prices. The picture is more positive, says McCarthy and Stone
September 16, 2016 By
Statement from McCarthy & Stone The majority of properties managed by McCarthy & Stone have increased in value when resold (based on data relating to managed properties resold in 2016 to-date) and historical data suggests around a third of all our properties outperform their local market. In addition, our newer properties are better-placed to retain […]
