Alexandra Road, Southport | Apartment 20 | £235,750

Adlington Retirement Living is an award-winning developer of retirement living apartments. The Sailings on Alexandra Road offers a selection of 55 privately owned one, two and three-bedroom retirement apartments in the coastal town of Southport. Enjoy modern, stylish living with the benefit of patios or walk-out balconies to all apartments. Low maintenance living in a safe and secure environment, with on-site parking and landscaped gardens.

• Beautifully appointed kitchens with fully integrated appliances
• Walk on balconies or patios to most apartments
• En-suite and bathroom with heated towel rails to many apartments
• Slip resistant and level access shower rooms
• Wardrobe to master bedroom
• Utility cupboards with space for a washer/dryer and in most cases separate storage rooms
• 24-hour emergency call system linked directly to dedicated on-site team
• Audio and visual entry system to main entrance
• Wider doorways and spacious rooms for ease of wheelchair access
• Ample easy reach sockets, light switches and telephone points
• Electric throughout with energy efficient hot water and central heating system

Imagine more time to enjoy the things that matter most. Time to relax in your new retirement apartment, meet new friends in our homeowners’ lounge, share a freshly prepared meal in the restaurant or take advantage of all that Southport has to offer. If you have a people friendly pet, they’re also welcome too.

• Elegant table service Restaurant* serving freshly prepared hot meals daily & open to friends and family
• Beautifully appointed Lounge with outdoor patio area
• Take up a hobby in our Activities Studio
• Assisted bathroom and Therapy Room
• Pamper yourself in our Hairdressing Salon*
• Internal Mobility Scooter & Bicycle Store with electric charging facilities
• Fully furnished Guest Suite with en-suite for when family and friends stay*
• Two lifts to every floor
• Private homeowners parking
• Extensive landscaped gardens with raised flower beds for you to enjoy
• *additional charges apply.

Service and Well-Being Charge

All Homeowners living at The Sailings, Southport will contribute to a Service and Well-Being Charge. The high level of care, support and services on offer to enhance quality and enjoyment of life are what make Adlington different. These charges are to provide services such as;

• The provision of a daily restaurant service which enables homeowners to enjoy a delicious freshly prepared meal at exceptionally good value. Two courses from £4 per person, and three courses from £5.25 per person
• Communal cleaning and maintenance
• External window cleaning
• Water usage, buildings insurance and estate management
• 24-hour support everyday, 365 days a year, in case of any emergency, working in tandem with a discreet emergency call system installed in each apartment

Our own management team, Adlington Management Services (AMS) take great pride in providing a high standard of service including checking on our Homeowners well-being and liaising with family and professionals if necessary. They consult with Homeowners on all aspects of the operations of the development and facilitate numerous social events and activities that can be participated in as much, or as little, as you like.

You no longer have to take into consideration the ongoing costs of upkeep and maintenance of your current property, grounds and gardens. As well as owning a modern stylish apartment built to high specification it is also well insulated and cost effective to heat.

We have a vested interest in making sure that our buildings and grounds are always fully maintained and that the apartments retain their value so inheritance is maximised.

Weekly Service and Well-Being Charges at Southport are estimated to be;

• 1 bedroom – approximately £145
• 2 bedroom – approximately £153
• 3 bedroom – approximately £162

Payment of the Service and Well-being Charge has to continue even if the apartment is vacant, as it is proportioned between all Homeowners in order to maintain the high standard of service.

Care Charges

Additional care packages can be designed to suit your individual requirements. All care packages are drawn up in consultation with you, based upon a careful assessment of your needs and are regularly reviewed, including short term illness and recuperation packages.  Costs are based on the level of need per person and will be charged from £20 per hour.

• The charge is doubled where two carers are required

Individual Responsibilities

As you would expect in your own home other household expenditures will remain as the Homeowner’s responsibility. These typically include:

• Council tax
• Electricity – which is metered per apartment
• Contents insurance
• Telephone line rental and broadband (where applicable)
• TV licence (where applicable)

Ground Rent

Adlington developments provide extensive communal facilities, such as the lounge, restaurant and commercial kitchen, coffee lounge, hairdressing salon, guest suite, staff rooms,  management offices and the mobility scooter and bicycle store, as well as landscaped gardens and grounds. It is these facilities along with the 24-hour on-site support which makes your new home likely to be suitable for your whole life, without the need to move to a care home. This is a major benefit to well-being, peace of mind and independence and, if it avoids care home fees, also has considerable financial advantages. You will only purchase your own apartment, so in order to recoup the considerable costs of these extensive facilities we levy an annual Ground Rent.

Annual Ground Rent 2019/2020:

• 1 bedroom – £400
• 2 bedroom – £500
• 3 bedroom – £600

The Ground Rent is due annually from 1st January and will be reviewed every year in line with the Retail Price Index.

In addition, to give Homeowners maximum flexibility, we have incorporated into our lease the option for you to buy out your Ground Rent at any time by giving the legal landlord written notice and paying a fee of 40 x the Ground Rent at the time of the service of the notice which will take effect from the 1st January for the following year. For every year after that for the duration of the lease the rent will be “a peppercorn” (i.e. zero pounds).

If you wish to exercise this right upon your initial purchase, please let us and your solicitors know, and we can accommodate this from the outset for the cost of 40 x the initial Ground Rent set for your home. (e.g. to buy out the Ground Rent at the outset for a one bedroomed home it would cost 40 x £400 = £16,000)

Building Reserve Fund

Whilst the day to day maintenance of the building and facilities is covered by the Service and Well-Being Charge, which is kept as low as possible to leave Homeowners with maximum disposable income, major capital costs and refurbishment are not included.

It is important that maintenance is kept to the highest standards for all to enjoy and to cover any major works, a fee of 0.25% of your sale price for each year of occupation will be levied when you sell on your apartment and is capped at 10 years.

The Building Reserve Fund will build up over time so that money is available to pay for capital costs as they occur, such as replacement lifts, restaurant kitchen equipment, the building roof and car park. This ensures the development is maintained to the same standard as when you purchased.

Mr & Mrs Geddes – “Beautiful surroundings without the housework”

John and Jean Geddes were finding their five bedroom house and big garden difficult to maintain. They wanted to spend less time and energy on gardening, cleaning and DIY and more time going out and doing things.

John and Jean Geddes met at a cycling dance in 1959, three years after John had brought home a bronze medal for Team GB at the 1956 Olympics.

Jean, an accomplished dancer and member of TV’s famous Billy Martin team, forgave John his ‘two left feet’ and the couple married in 1962.

Having lived in their family home for 46 years, they recently decided to move to a retirement living community in Southport.

The couple had brought up their three children in their five-bedroom home in Widnes and whilst the decision to downsize was a tough one, their big house and large garden had become too much and they decided to start their property search.

“We were living in a massive five bedroom, two bathroom house and it was just getting too much for Jean” says John, now 83.

“I couldn’t do much and she was doing all the work. She didn’t realise but she would come in of a night and she was exhausted.”

Jean explains: “I was never done. There was always something to do. It was a big garden and I was doing everything. I was out all afternoon and half the night. I used to come in for Escape to the Country, have a coffee and go out again.”

When the couple painted the exterior of their house, two years before they moved, it had cost them £5000 due to the size of the house and the scaffolding required. Even the indoor cleaning was hard to maintain with eight-foot-high ceilings. The maintenance of the house and garden was becoming a full-time job for Jean and left her with no time or energy to do anything else: “I didn’t want to be tied to the house. I wanted to go out and do things.”

Mr and Mrs Geddes had initially looked at a retirement community two years earlier but had decided they weren’t ready to move. When they visited The Sailings, a new luxury development from Adlington Retirement Living in Southport, John said they made their decision straight away:

“A friend of mine lives in Maghull and we saw an advertisement for The Sailings in the local paper. We’d been to see an apartment that our friend was looking at and it was a nice place, but we wanted somewhere with a bit more community, where we can go down to the lounge and talk to people. I came in to see Karen at The Sailings and she took me round and I knew right away that I wanted it.”

Having lived in Ormskirk before they moved to Widnes John and Jean already had some friends in the local area. Jean’s two sisters also live nearby in Ainsdale but Jean thought the hardest part of moving after 46 years would be making new friends and building a new social life. “I like people” Jean explains.

Soon after moving, they’ve already got a busy social life: “I’m making friends here. I do a lot myself. I go swimming, I go to Chi Ball – it’s T’ai Chi with a bit of Pilates and a bit of Yoga. I go out and join things so I’m helping myself. I go to the church every Sunday morning and I walk into town. We’re hoping to get a pilates class here soon. When the weather gets better we’ll go out on our bikes together.”

John adds: “She goes once a fortnight to Knit and Natter in the lounge and they never stop. They’re chatting and chatting away. I’m doing my jigsaw here and she’s happy! We had a coffee morning the other day and all the new neighbours came and she was chatting away to them all. I think it’s really good here.”

They’ve also entertained some of their friends and family at The Sailings.

“Our youngest daughter Rachael, lives in Brighton now and she came for Christmas with her son Luca who’s 11, and her partner Martyn. They stayed in the guest suite here and they’re coming again this weekend.

“Helen, our middle daughter lives in the Wirral and she came last weekend with her husband, David. Their children, Oliver and Philippa came up here the day we were moving in and the restaurant here made us a lovely dinner.

“Our son, Martin, lives in Perth in Australia now, so he comes back to visit every three years.”

They’ve also had some old friends come to visit them at The Sailings.

John: “I had three blokes come across yesterday who all used to ride bikes with me. One was 88, one was 83, and one was 82 and we came and sat in the lounge, had a good talk, had some light bites in the restaurant, finished talking and they all went home. They’re all friends from way back.

“It’s better for both of us here. I can go cycling. Jean can walk to the shops, use her bike and go for a ride if she wants to and there are plenty of people here who she can talk to. We’ve made friends already and I can tell they’re going to be like a second family. We should have moved years ago.”