Deciding whether to move home in older age can be challenging. A move may provide a whole new lease of life, but a wrong choice can be difficult to undo. Our site provides information about every retirement scheme, development or village in the UK, to help you make the right choice.
If you simply want to move to a more suitable non-retirement home, and need help or advice with this, our EAC Advice service is here to help you.
Whether you have decided to move or just want to check what's available, this site contains detailed information on finding:
Finding a more suitable home
Whether you want to move closer to family or friends, or have your heart set on retiring to a house in the country or a bungalow by the sea, but can鈥檛 afford to do so, then options to consider include:
A lifetime mortgage
If you have a home to sell, you may be able to use the proceeds to pay the deposit on a new property and take out a 鈥榣ifetime mortgage鈥� to cover the rest of the cost.
Buying a 鈥榟ome for life鈥� plan
Buying a 鈥榟ome for life plan鈥�, or 鈥榣ifetime lease鈥�, gives you the right to live in a property until you (both in the case of couples) die or move to a care home. This might enable you to live somewhere you couldn鈥檛 otherwise afford.
Understanding & finding retirement housing
Retirement housing includes a wide spectrum of apartment blocks and bungalow estates that are for people over a certain age (typically 55 or 60), have on-site management, usually include communal spaces (residents鈥� lounge, garden, parking, buggy store) and often have a vibrant social life.
Most retirement developments offer either properties for sale or for rent, but newer ones may offer both tenure options, and possibly shared ownership too.
Read more about retirement housing.
Search our directory of retirement housing.
Understanding & finding lifestyle living & retirement villages
Recent years have seen the growth of a new type of age exclusive developments whose attraction is that they focus on encouraging and supporting an active, healthy and sociable lifestyle, whilst still providing a range of 鈥榟ospitality鈥� services, as well as care if or when needed.
Retirement 鈥榲illages鈥� are the best known and largest examples, typically providing between 100 and 300 homes, often a mix of apartments and bungalows, on a single site, along with restaurants, gyms, landscaped gardens, outdoor seating areas and indoor activity spaces. Generally the whole complex will be designed with attention to accessibility for residents with restricted mobility.
Both ownership and rental options are commonly available, as well as alternative ways of paying for the services on offer 鈥� including part deferring payment until a property is sold.
Read more about lifestyle living & retirement villages
Search our directory of retirement villages
Understanding & finding housing-with-care
Housing-with-care is a recent but natural evolution of retirement housing to provide an environment capable of enabling older people to maintain their independence even if they become physically or mentally frail.
Daily help, including personal care, is available on site and one or more meals are available daily in a dining room or restaurant. Additional facilities are also common 鈥� for example hairdressing salons, hobby rooms and gyms. Organised activities will focus on helping residents maintain their health and wellbeing.
Housing-with-care developments run by housing associations and local authorities tend to be called 鈥榚xtra care鈥� or 鈥榠ndependent living鈥� schemes, and explicitly seek to accommodate people who need daily help.
Those run by private operators more often focus on lifestyle, with help and care services discretely available to buy if or when required.
Care services offered to people in housing-with-care facilities are regulated, subject to periodic inspections and awarded grades. Wherever possible, Inspectorate reports and grades are accessible from the housing-with-care pages on this website.
Read more about housing-with-care
Search our directory of housing-with-care
Understanding & finding a care home
A care home is a residential setting where a number of older people live, usually in single rooms or hotel-style suites, because they need regular or continuous access to care.
Some care homes are registered to provide personal care only, for example help with washing, dressing and giving medication. Others also provide nursing, and will have a nurse on duty twenty-four hours a day.
With a few exceptions, accommodation in a care home cannot be bought or rented like retirement housing. Think of them more like full-board hotel accommodation with 24 hour care available.
As with hotels, the cost of living in a care home varies widely according to its location, the size of your room or suite, and the facilities on offer. There is often a substantial difference between fees charged to those who can afford the costs themselves and those who receive help from their Local Authority. A majority of homes aim to cater for both, but some target only one or the other.
Care homes are regulated by independent Inspectorates in each country of the UK, subject to periodic inspections and awarded quality grades. Inspectorate reports and grades are accessible from the care home pages on this website.
Read more about care homes
Search our directory of care homes
Read more about nursing homes
Search our directory of nursing homes
Maintaining your home in good, secure, safe and warm condition may present increasing problems as you grow older. Ordinary household tasks can present challenges, and finding reliable tradespeople to carry out repairs and redecorations, or to help in the garden, can be a worry. Getting out and about may become more difficult.
Our site offers information and guidance that we hope will be of help to you.
