YOUR STORY
Do you have a retirement home story to tell? As part of our campaign, we’re collecting case studies and stories from people who have been affected by empty retirement homes, in any way. If you feel able, please share your story in the form below. All stories will be treated anonymously unless we make contact with you to gain permission to share it.
Retired Homes
You might have seen them: retirement flats lingering on Rightmove, reducing in value, often for years. If you’re very unlucky, you may have come into ownership of a retirement home after losing a loved one and then struggled for years to sell the property, perhaps eventually selling it for far less than was originally paid.
Across the country, specialist homes for older people are lying unused whilst housing waiting lists grow, and the housing crises deepen.
It doesn’t make sense. That’s why we’re keen to launch Retired Homes to uncover the truth about these empty retirement homes and to demand policy change.
What Your Donation Supports
A new national research project: How many retirement homes are empty? Where? Why? With our years of experience understanding empty homes data, Action on Empty Homes is in a unique position to dig through and analyse the specific data on empty retirement homes.
Case studies and local deep-dives into long-term empty retirement blocks, including interviews with older people, families, and housing experts. We will be looking for your input to capture the ways empty retirement homes are impacting lives.
Policy analysis and campaign demands for government and developers
A public-facing report and media campaign to bring attention to the issue. Action on Empty Homes has extensive and successful experience shining a light on the empty homes issues. Our media reach is huge, and we get attention for the things we campaign on.
Empty retirement homes are a symptom of a broken housing model, and we can’t afford to ignore them any longer. We have indications that older retirement homes sit empty in areas where new retirement developments appear. We’ve heard from bereaved loved ones who have been left with a property they cannot sell and service charge bills they have to pay. In the face of a growing housing crisis, we simply can’t afford any homes to remain empty, especially when these homes may be causing challenges and heartache for the people left dealing with them.
Why it matters
“For five years we’ve been trying to sell my mum’s retirement flat. We pay £6,000 a year (£20,000 to date) for maintenance and management costs on an empty property. I believe 15 out of the 29 retirement apartments have been empty for more than 2 years...”