RYM - Ryman Healthcare

[dobby41]

Why is it scary ? Suppose Joe Bloggs is 65 and fit and healthy and owns a $1m house in Auckland and nothing else.
Option 1. Buy a fancy Auckland RYM unit and be broke for the rest of his days. (Actually he can't do that for quite some time due to minimum age restrictions)
Option 2. Buy said leasehold unit and free-up $800K invested at say a 5% return in a balanced portfolio of shares and bonds and enjoy a comfortable retirement. Odds are he won't live past 95 anyway. Suppose he gets to 85 and needs better care. Sell Leasehold unit for somewhere about what he paid for it, and buy a care suite at OCA which on average on a national basis are just $227K.

Option 2 looks considerably better than option 1 to me as for one thing he can get on with enjoying his retirement now, not at some predetermined future date RYM decide to accept him, assuming they don't move the entry age goalposts again..

For a start the model they used was for 55+ with the idea that at 85 they'd be gone.
If they aren't gone they have no lease.
I have no idea about the terms of the lease but the idea that they'd 'just take their house away' is fanciful at best.

[Beagle]

For a start the model they used was for 55+ with the idea that at 85 they'd be gone.
If they aren't gone they have no lease.
I have no idea about the terms of the lease but the idea that they'd 'just take their house away' is fanciful at best.

Their target demographic is 55 years and older
I'm not suggesting they take their house away, where did I say that ? I am suggesting they could probably sell their well maintained house on leasehold land and transfer their existing land lease to someone else, you know, like what happens with every other leasehold sale.

I am seeing a big increase in the number of people selling up Auckland properties to trade down to something far cheaper in the provinces as the only way for people who have nothing saved to enjoy a comfortable retirement. I expect this emerging trend to gather serious pace in the years ahead.

Fact is freeing up $800K in this example gives Joe Bloggs a comfortable retirement if he has no other means whereas moving into a typical fairly expensive Auckland RYM unit does not. There are significantly more people without a decent retirement nest egg than with one, in my professional opinion.

[dobby41]

I'm not suggesting they take their house away, where did I say that ? I am suggesting they could probably sell their well maintained house on leasehold land and transfer their existing land lease to someone else, you know, like what happens with every other leasehold sale.

The woman in the article suggested she'd just take the house away (I presume you looked at the whole item?).
Every other leasehold (or most commonly) have very long leases - much longer than 30 years.

I predict a lot of angst in the media in years to come.