New housing brand My Future Living aims to make retirement rentals a more mainstream housing option for people in later life.
ReSI Property Management’s retirement portfolio has been managed by Girlings Retirement Rentals since 2016 but it has now brought it back in-house and employed Girlings’ property management and lettings team to focus solely on managing its 2,222 one and two bed properties in modern, purpose-built retirement communities under the new brand.
CEO Nygel Scourfield (pictured) says this should result in lower costs, reduced dependence on external third parties and the potential to better manage portfolio voids.
Wider use of new technology will include an online maintenance service from FixFlo which residents can use to report any repair or maintenance issue online.
He tells LandlordZONE that residents themselves are also using tech more readily.
“Older people want to feel safe and part of a community. Many have felt scared throughout the pandemic but our customers have suffered less because they’ve been surrounded by other people.
Embrace technology
“It has also encouraged them to embrace technology and many are happy using computers and iPads and are using DocuSign instead of paper which speeds things up.”
Scourfield believes there’s huge demand for good quality, affordable retirement rentals in the UK; the typical monthly rent in one of its homes is £780.
He points to research from FirstPort which found that four in 10 retirees said the recent lockdown restrictions had motivated them to move into a later living property.
My Future Living is currently only acquiring new properties in a small way, a dozen units at a time, but he adds: “Our aim is to consolidate what we’ve got then in a few months we’ll be in a position for growth – our build to rent fund is growing very fast.”
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