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Most people would say inheriting a two-bedroom bungalow worth £450,000 at the age of 26 is incredibly lucky, a rare chance for someone my age to have a leg-up to buy a home of their own.
That was what my grandmother hoped when she passed down her retirement bungalow to my brother and I when she died.
But nearly two years later, the reality is that it has become a financial burden. You have to be 55 or older to live there, leaving us paying thousands in service charges for an empty home.
My grandmother bought her bungalow in Reigate, Surrey, in 2017 when she was 87.
It is a neat, red brick bungalow sitting in a line of identical homes belonging to other retirees in a complex decorated with trimmed hedges and huge bushes of blue-violet coloured hydrangeas.
When she lived there, she played her piano and she used to sit and watch the birds drinking from the birdbath on the patio outside.
My grandmother had been widowed for 40 years, and she had just downsized from a big home where she had lived alone. When she moved into her bungalow, she was surrounded by friends.
She was keen to leave her grandchildren something we could use to get on the property ladder. That was very important to her.
But two years on from her death in 2024, the home is costing us almost £8,000 a year in service charges while we struggle to find a buyer.
We aren’t the only ones. Across the country, families are paying thousands of pounds in ongoing fees after the death of a relative. At the same time, inherited retirement properties remain empty for months, or even years, waiting for a buyer.
Analysis by estate agent Hamptons estimates that there are just under 14,000 retirement flats on the market across Britain – a 19pc increase on last year. The vast majority are thought to be empty while they wait to be sold.
Its data also show that the average annual service charge for a retirement flat has risen from £2,658 in 2019 to £4,090 in 2026 – an increase of 54pc.
