Retirement Developments under Firstport management:
2013) 1,447
2014) 1,417
2015) 1,394
2016) 1,380
2017) 1,366
2018) 1,343.
Still a large number granted, but if we look back just a few years Firstport Retirement were making regular profits in the £2,000,000- £2,500,000 range.
And yet by the end of 2018 they had slipped to a loss of £5,831,741 and had to post a loan write amounting to £7,481,000.
By 2019 it became easier for residents to go Right to Manage, Firstport's defence tactics had been exposed so they found it harder to resist a Right to Manage?
To make matters worse other established property management companies were snapping at the heals of Firstport retirement developments, including unfortunately a substantial amount of developments "gifted" to Freemont, run by former Firstport directors.
A particularly damaging setback for Firstport has occured in the North West, where by dindt of word and mouth Select Retirement has made great progress in winning over former Firstport developments.
Such was the effect on Firstport that in 2019 they were forced into selling the leases on 275 house manager's flats in order to survive until a rescuer appeared.
Whilst this granted them a temporary relief it came at a cost of over £2,000,000 every year in rental for the house manager's flats.
That is the equivalant of their annual profits in the good years when they had considerably more developments under management.
Within two years legislation is expected to be brought in which will make it far less complex for residents to go Right to Manage.
The steady stream of RTM's will become a torrent.
As big as they still are, they have no long term future within the Firstport group, and you can rest assure the new investors Equistone did not invest to lose money.
