FT922-13404 _AN-CDKAKADOFT 920411 FT 11 APR 92 / Property: The kind of retirement Granny might get a grip on -A look at some attractive homes for the elderly By GERALD CADOGAN ARE ALL retirement homes just handy places for 'granny dumping,' as they say in the US? Or are some nice enough to live in yourself one day? This section of the property business is a growth industry. By the year 2000 a quarter of the UK population will be ageing baby boomers, 55 years old and over - and an increasing burden on our children. In Mediterranean countries granny always has a place. But how shall we cope in northern Europe and the US when we would seem to have jettisoned family support systems? Retirement housing projects, especially for families with no spare room to turn into a granny flat, offer one answer. Look hard for the good schemes, says Henry Thornton of Beechcroft Developments, which builds retirement homes, and 'do not leave it too late.' Shed your furniture yourself rather than have your heirs squabble over it, and move into a retirement home while you can still adjust easily and are fit enough to enjoy spending any money released by selling your old house. Retirement homes are not nursing homes, but they do usually have help on call 24 hours a day. Their aim is for residents to keep their independence, but to make life easier by reducing hassle and anxiety at a reasonable cost. (The good schemes make their profit out of the development, not from the subsequent management charge). You have only to press the personal alarm you wear and the secretary (in Beechcroft's term - more usually 'the warden') will come at once, ready to call doctor, ambulance or police. Or the warden will look in if nobody has seen you for a day or two. In practice, crisis calls are few, but all schemes stress this part of the package for its peace of mind. Security is also built quietly into the design of good schemes. Viewer entryphones on the door are normal. Access from outside is restricted to one entrance; the 'cottages' and apartments are often built round a courtyard, rather like an Oxbridge college, or, Beechcroft says, 'taking the idea of living cheek by jowl in smart terraces in the city into the country and market towns.' You can usually expect about 20 to 40 units, each with with two or three bedrooms, allowing couples to sleep apart or have guests and grandchildren. Award-winning firms such as Beechcroft (0491-34975) and English Courtyard (071-937-4511) pride themselves on stylish design, sympathetic to the local townscape. They emphasise the comfort that familiar designs and finish in a building can bring to people of any age. Beechcroft's Upper Brook Hill scheme in Woodstock, Oxfordshire (architects: Andrews Downie and Partners) offers the stonework and solidity of the 18th century merchant houses in the town, and is well stocked with shrubs. It is a useful urban renewal project. Views are over the Glyme Valley and the park of Blenheim; the scheme is barely five minutes' walk from the middle of town. English Courtyard's Malthouse Court in Towcester, Northamptonshire (by Sidell Gibson Partnership), illustrated in the Prince of Wales's book A Vision of Britain, also reflects local style, using Hornton stone from the quarries near Banbury. Once inside any decent retirement home, you should look for unobtrusive helpful details. Doors should be wide enough to take a wheelchair; stairs should be fitted with a chair lift. Power points at knee height mean that no resident has to bend down too far. However, installing your own washing machine may be better than a communal laundry. (If there is one, inquire how the rota works - you do not want to be restricted to two fixed hours a week.) Every unit should have a garage. If you wish to garden, you will be encouraged, but there will frequently be a gardener/odd job man to look after the place, put out the dustbins and clean the windows. Some schemes even offer a tennis court and a covered swimming pool - like Beechcroft's new projects at Alton in Hampshire and Cerne Abbas in Dorset. Cerne also has a nine-acre garden by the river, and is built around a splendid flint tithe barn. Check that you are allowed to keep dogs and cats. The human residents are unlikely to be a problem - many are likely to be congenial fellow readers of Weekend FT. But location will be important. Do you want to live in a village, or an old market town equipped with reasonable shops, banks and doctors? How do you get away? Is it easy for London and the airports? (Retirement homes are ideal to lock up and leave for a spell in the sun.) Are there trains, or must your relations ferry you around? Most important of all, how close do you want to be to them - and they to you? It all adds up to rethinking your life, prospects, assets, and expectations of your dependents. Now is a good time to buy a retirement home; prices have fallen in the recession. Beechcroft has a cottage for Pounds 147,000 in its Woodstock scheme, and an apartment for Pounds 127,500. At Cerne, properties will be between Pounds 95,000 and Pounds 225,000. English Courtyard's price range for its Earls Manor Court at Winterbourne Earls, near Salisbury, Wiltshire, which will be ready in the autumn, is Pounds 160,000 to Pounds 210,000. You do not buy a freehold, but a long lease: English Courtyard's is 150 years; Beechcroft's is 999 years. An occupier must be at least 55 or 60, but ownership is unrestricted - it could be your children or a family trust. Thereafter, some firms charge ground rent; the better schemes do not. All have a system for managing the whole property, with an annual service charge (perhaps Pounds 1,200) to cover building insurance, secretary, gardener, pool and so on. (You would have had to pay something similar in your old house, anyway.) You must pay your own community charge or its replacement, contents insurance, electricity and water, and interior decoration - though in a new scheme, if you show interest early enough, you may be able to choose the colours at no extra cost. The main hitch at the moment is selling your old property. But if you can find a buyer, remember that even in today's market, good-quality retirement housing does well at resale, often keeping its value in real terms. And if that does not concern you personally, your heirs will certainly be glad to know. The Financial Times London Page XIV