When Philip Conway, 56, helped his mother move into a £465,000 retirement home six years ago it seemed like a sensible decision.

The house in Wokingham was close to family, and based in a friendly retirement complex with services such as gardening and maintenance covered by a £5,000 annual charge.

Early last year Mr Conway and his siblings decided it was the right time to put the property on the market when his mother, now 93, went into full-time care.

At first they listed it for £500,000, but have now had to cut the price to below what it was bought for in 2018 – despite nationwide house prices having risen by an average of £50,000 since then.

The family had hoped to rent it out to cover some of his mother’s care home fees but found they would need to pay 1pc of the rental income to the retirement complex’s landlord via managing agent FirstPort.

They are also still paying the service charge despite the property being vacant.

For now, Mr Conway’s mother has enough savings to cover the fees for another six months but after that he and his siblings will need to step in to help pay for her care. 

A FirstPort spokesman said: “We are unable to put service charges on hold for an empty property because any shortfall affects all the other people who live at the development and our ability to carry out essential maintenance.

“Where a family is struggling to pay the service charges for an empty property, we can work with them to put a payment plan in place until the property is sold or reoccupied.”

It comes as more than 3,300 retirement housing units were built in 2022, according to estate agents Knight Frank. Nearly 20,000 have been added to the housing supply over the past five years.

CBRE says the demand for “age appropriate housing” is rising and developers are currently targeting those with housing wealth over £500,000. More than 70pc of over-55s in the UK are mortgage free.

However, the Leasehold Advisory Service warns that while the majority of retirement home residents are happy, problems over fees or the provision of services can arise. 

A report by the Competition and Markets Authority in 2017 found that many retirement and care homes were charging unfair or non-transparent fees and charging fees even after the death of a resident.

Paula Higgins, chief executive at Homeowners Alliance, said: “There needs to be much more upfront information. There is a lack of transparency particularly around exit fees that can be astonishing.

“If the person is deceased and the family has to carry on paying service charges, it is hard to sell the property again.”