Hi
I actually own one of these.
No property investment is short term but this one is very long term. You are effectively gambling on the life expectancy of the person or two people living there. It is a completely rent free investment so you need to do the maths. Current life expectancy for men is 83 and women 86. Assuming you buy a property for £100,000 and it has an open market value of £300,000, and there is a couple who are aged 63 and 66 (man and woman). It follows that you will have to wait 20 years to get your investment back.In blunt terms you have to wait for them both to die or have to move out permanently into care. Assuming you are looking at a return of 7% then you will need to sell the house for at least 400k in 20 years time. My view is that there is a good chance of being able to do this based on current value.If you want to resell it that is an option. If you have only bought a percentage, then the legal paperwork will cover the price you will have to pay for the rest at different time frames if this is offered.
Most of these are bought by grandparents such as myself who do not need the income and want to leave something for the grandchildren. In the example above if you have 4 grand children all young, then a house with a value today of 300k, would (when sold) provide the equivalent today of 75,000 each as a deposit when they are in their late 20's.
If you are unlucky then one of the tenants could live 40 years in which case it will be too late for the grand kids. Hopefully I will have checked out by then so they will not be able to complain to me
Peter