Should older people move house to make way for the young?

BlueBelle

No young person would want my 3 storey Victorian house with no central heating, sash windows, and fireplaces but
I love it. One grandaughter loves it who knows what ll happen when I’m gone

I feel the same.

Nobody wants this old one storey home, no central heating, fireplaces, huge gardens, even larger yards.. we love it as much as when we married.

Norah

BlueBelle

No young person would want my 3 storey Victorian house with no central heating, sash windows, and fireplaces but
I love it. One grandaughter loves it who knows what ll happen when I’m gone

I feel the same.

Nobody wants this old one storey home, no central heating, fireplaces, huge gardens, even larger yards.. we love it as much as when we married.

Depends what you call young, plenty of people in their 30’s/early 40’s buying larger, older properties near us, rural areas of the Winchester district. A lot of them commute to London, they add central heating, turn outbuildings into Airbnb. A few we know are multi generational living.

Is it also that children don't share rooms so much these days?

Reasons not to move when elderly:
- stress, stress and more stress ... our house buying and selling system is some kind of nightmare and I would not want to do it again ever. I did it 5 years ago and it was truly awful!
- familiarity with layout etc.
- local support
- room for family to visit and stay
- local social life
- ill health ... many elderly people are not well enough to engage in the decluttering, selling of furniture, refitting new home with curtains etc

It all sounds so simple on paper, but it is not a sliding block puzzle ... these are real people!

We will probably downsize, due to possibly incurring inheritance tax for our ACs . We are looking at other options , but We live in the south east and the value of an average 4 bed house puts a lot of people over the iht threshold . In South London a 3 bed is over 1 mil .
However regarding older people downsizing and taking housing stock from young families . Where I live young families are buying bungalows and extending upwards to create bigger homes. The bungalows are in need of a lot of work , having been owned by older people . So it works both ways .

ViceVersa has put her finger on the stupidity of the arguments used by those who think the answer to the housing crisis can be solved by older people in bigger homes selling them to families.

The only way to solve the housing crisis is to build more homes. It actually doesn't matter whether those homes are big, small or medium sized, All that matters is that the number of houses in the housing stock euals, broadly, the number of households of all sizes looking for self contained accommodation.

I also do not understand this obsession with bedrooms. A bedroom is a room people sleep in, but too often it is taken to simply mean the upstairs rooms in a house and that is grossly misleading.

Having moved house in the last year I have looked at hundreds of house plans and photos, and time and time again you see upstairs rooms being used for all kinds of purposes that do not include sleeping: gyms, offices, sewing rooms, gaming rooms. Rooms clearly never used for sleeping. We have twice owned houses where one of the bedrooms was a dedicated study/office.

And being always willing to be a devil's advocate, I would ask the question, which group in society spend the largest proportion of their time in their home? The answer is, of course, older people. Single people, families, spend little time in their homes. They are at school, at work, at leisure facilities whether gyms or cafes, out visiting friends and so on.

The older people get, the more time they stay at home. Surely, therefore we are the ones most in need of big houses with large rooms where we can move around, do different things in different rooms, just have space to keep moving and active, even when we are house bound. It is older people who are most likely to fully occupy their homes.

We have been looking at moving since the new year.

I have no real interest in modern homes (unless they are super modern) so have spent this week looking at barn conversions thinking they might be an option.

However... they are really badly designed with very small rooms upstairs and "dining hallways" quite often. They also tend to have turned (and often painted) newel posts and baulsters - and sand-blasted beams so out of keeping with the agricultural and functional nature of the original.

I wondered today why I ever thought this might be an interesting solution.

They also come with microscopic gardens - presumably to do with planning laws around agricultural space and how much "belongs" to the barn. I suspect the land "allowed" to become residential is close to the internal space the barn sits on. I'm only guessing this though.

Basically what i was trying to say is that it is VERY hard to find somewhere you like (and can afford) no matter what age you are.

No, I will never feel that I should give up the home we live in now so that a younger person can have it. We’ve worked hard for this place and want to stay in it as long as we possibly can.

I agree with ViceVersa and MOnica,
I myself moved fairly recently but it was to live somewhere with more facilities and a smaller, safer garden and the house had to be low maintenance. It still has 4 bedrooms, only one of which is a spare…for family visits. All the other rooms are filled with my stuff and used for various purposes, frequently because I’m mostly in.
In any case, a young person who struggles to buy a small first time home won’t afford mine.

I live in London and if anybody offered me money for my 3 bedroom modern house built in the 1980s I would give it consideration, but could they afford it?

I haven't seen a house built here for many years. It is flats everywhere, even in the middle of town and those when built will be at least 6-8 storeys high, an eyesore.

Some of the modern flats are so expensive I wouldn't have any money to go towards my care home fees. Also I like to hang my washing out, the simple pleasures.

I live in a small house in Greater London, due to location it is more expensive than 10 miles further out.
I don't want to move, I am near a station, bus stop, and shops. I can drive without too much bother to the dentist, Doctors, and hospital.
I could get more for my money by moving further out, but would lose my support network.
No I don't believe anyone should be should be asked to leave their home, especially if they have been there years and they consider it their home. Also asking people to leave when they are older would be stressful fir them.

I watched Escape to the Country - a retired couple who wanted 'more space' than their 4 bedroom house in suburbia. I switched off.

At 65, do people not look at 75 yr olds and say that could be us in 10yrs?
Why does people want a big house to keep clean and heat?
Why do people not see that modern houses are easier to keep clean than 'character properties'?
We like gardening, we'd like a bigger garden. Do you have magic knees?
We want views. No, you want to be a short walk from shops and a health centre. And public transport would be good

UK needs a lot of 2 bedroom homes without stairs (accessible to wheelchairs would be good). Definitely affordable. Upstairs flats would be good for young couples, singles and non-resident parents

Jaxjacky I own by house paid for by me alone it needs at least £50/60,000 in repairs updates it’s the only thing I ve ever owned that’s bigger than a smart TV and I have earned the right to stay in it if I want to and I do want to
I ve lived in a prefab, flats, a council house and didn’t own a house until I was in my forties. I think I have every right to stay in it whether it’s too big for me or not. I ve presumably not got that many years so I ll stay where I am as long as I can

Yes - I often watch Escape to the Country and it makes me smile: retired people looking at large homes with steep gardens, narrow stairs etc. - they have no idea how difficult these places could become in only a very few years. And then they would have to move again.

I live in the country which some might not feel is ideal at my age, but the house itself is suitable to my age and decrepitude and it is in a warm and supportive community which is worth a king's ransom.

Cossy

If you own your own house (on a mortgage or without a mortgage) then my opinion is that you can have 90 or 9 or 1 room/s. So long as it’s yours and you can afford to run it, then it’s no one else’s business.

However, if you live in in social housing and your children have moved out and you are one person or a couple living in 4 bed roomed accommodation, imo, your council should downsize you (easier said than done) to a smaller property, that you like and is in an area you like, and use the bigger property for a family.

Exactly this Cossy.
I am not moving to please anyone else. We use all four of our bedrooms.
By the time we have paid SD, estate agent fees & solicitors fees, to downsize, it’s not worth moving.

Only two of us I should have added
To Cossy

Maremia

Are we the first generation to be faced with this 'issue'? If so, why?

Yes.
These questions have arisen since the formation of the Intergenerational Foundation which many believe is the source of resentment between generations.

Should we downsize? If we wish to yes, but there is little in the way of suitable property for older people. Chance would be a fine thing! We should not be made to feel guilty if we stay put.

Many of us are very attached to our homes - and that is what they are, a home, not just a house or a piece of real estate. We like our neighbourhood, know our neighbours are there if we need to call on them and vice versa. We may live in an area where we have made social connections over years and which is convenient for shops, GP surgery etc.

As others have pointed out, many new builds are 4/5 bedrooms anyway and suitable bungalows are just not being built any more.

Chardy

I watched Escape to the Country - a retired couple who wanted 'more space' than their 4 bedroom house in suburbia. I switched off.

At 65, do people not look at 75 yr olds and say that could be us in 10yrs?
Why does people want a big house to keep clean and heat?
Why do people not see that modern houses are easier to keep clean than 'character properties'?
We like gardening, we'd like a bigger garden. Do you have magic knees?
We want views. No, you want to be a short walk from shops and a health centre. And public transport would be good

UK needs a lot of 2 bedroom homes without stairs (accessible to wheelchairs would be good). Definitely affordable. Upstairs flats would be good for young couples, singles and non-resident parents

We like gardening, we'd like a bigger garden. Do you have magic knees?
Chardy 😁
And Luckygirl

Yes, we often watch Escape to the Country too.
We say "Think of the future, it's not that far away!".

It's an irregular cyclical event during Austerity for politicians / ex-politicians / newspaper columnists, etc, to pop up and suggest ways of alleviating an economic problem by - in effect - blaming the older and elderly generation for it when, in fact, it is the mis-management of the economy by past governments - all of them - and the 'short-termism' modus operandi that is necessary for any government when Parliament is automatically dissolved on the fifth anniversary of its first meeting.

I realise that continuing Austerity is a debatable matter and that the 2010-2019 period of it has officially ended, but services and budgets have never been fully restored. I suspect many individuals, especially those on low incomes, have seamlessly journeyed from 2010 to 2026 cutting-back, budgeting, robbing Peter to Pay Paul, without dropping a stitch... so as far as I'm concerned, Austerity continues. Hence public dissatisfaction which = looking for a scapegoat!

... and it seems it's our turn. Again. Do you remember when it was suggested that pensioners should return to the work force - post Brexit - to fill the gaps in the labour force left by those who abandoned them to return to their native countries?

Pensioners were encouraged by Conservative Peer, Lord Moylan; and Robert Jenrick as Immigration Minister - and Rishi Sunak's government launched an 'initiative' together with Jeremy Hunt, to encourage the "economically inactive" back into the workforce so that the country didn't have to rely on those bloody immigrants again! Note how pensioners were seamlessly transitioned into the 'economically inactive' demographic along with the long-term sick and disabled, unemployed, etc.

... I'm sure that detail did not form part of the aggressive Brexit benefits campaign.

Home ownership is one of the right-wing's little flag-ships - so much so that Margaret Thatcher encouraged council house tenants to take the opportunities offered to achieve that imperative. Though I suspect it was less to do with altruistic reasons and rather more to do with breaking up the troublesome cohesion of the working class, as home-owners morphed into little Capitalists - as she later boasted.

Forgive the cynicism but I hope no one on here feels shamed that they are living in, and intend to stay living in, the house they chose as their 'dream' house - or their sanctuary in old age, or just a house that enables them to live close to friends, amenities, and the infrastructure that they need as they age.

Lord Moylan now lives in a mansion-flat located off Kensington High Street. These spacious apartments in that location have a hefty price tag - somewhere between £3-£6 million. Undoubtedly, he downsized at some point, but I suspect there were very few families who could afford to buy his family home. He is now 70 years old and as far as I know still active in parliamentary debates - a comfortable position from which to advise others to go back into the workforce. One less Peer in the debating circles would not be missed, but the services and hospitality industry is in need of staff - he could apply for one of the positions in, say, my local Waitrose coffee shop - it's very genteel and in pleasant surroundings, but they are short of staff probably because the wages are pretty low. After you, Lord Moylan...

NotSpaghetti

Is it also that children don't share rooms so much these days?

I said that upthread, and think it is the case. I shared a room with my sister from the age of 8 when my brother took my sister's room, until we left home to get married. I hated it, but there was no choice as my parents had a 3 bed house and 3 children.

These days, if MN is to believed, that is tantamount to abuse. I don't agree FWIW, but have read several posts saying that people shouldn't have children unless they can provide at least a room each.

Norah

BlueBelle

No young person would want my 3 storey Victorian house with no central heating, sash windows, and fireplaces but
I love it. One grandaughter loves it who knows what ll happen when I’m gone

I feel the same.

Nobody wants this old one storey home, no central heating, fireplaces, huge gardens, even larger yards.. we love it as much as when we married.

I always think your house sounds lovely, Norah. I can't really picture it (in my head it could be Downton Abbey or Little House on the Prairie), but you always describe it as homely and happy, which is what matters.

Doodledog I missed that.
Apologies.
I did read the whole thread so maybe it was you that made me think of it.
We had 5 children and only 3 bedrooms.
The baby was in with us.

We did move when he was nearly one but I'm sure that sharing rooms happened a lot.
.
We had friends with four children and three bedrooms and two lots of friends with three children and three bedrooms - I think that was very normal.

fancythat

ViceVersa

Maybe I'm not 'getting' it, but say if I was to downsize from a 5-bed house to a 1 or 2-bed, isn't that taking the smaller houses out of the first-time buyer market?

Quite.

Plus times have changed, even in the last year.

Few younger people want a 5 bed nowadays[cost of maintenance, upkeep, renovations and utility bills].
5 bed and upwards often have to lower their asking price, or come off the market altogether, from what I am seeing.

Er........where are all these elderly folks luxuriating in grandiose 5 bedroom properties?

Five (!) bedrooms? In your dreams (and nightmares.)

We actually did give up our family house and moved into a flat. Our DD and family bought our house (at very substantial discount) and we moved into my recently deceased mother's flat. It's been a great success. DD and husband renovated our old house and sold it enabling them to move into one of the new 5 bedroom houses mentioned above. A spot of family help plus hard work renovating and we're all happy.

Re shared bedrooms.

My sister and I shared a bed until we were in our teens, and moved house, when Mum and Dad lashed out on two single (second hand) beds instead of our shared double.

Were we abused?

Probably, if you look at Mumsnet.