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

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?

Not really, if the availability of mid-size family homes was eased then first timers may be able to move upwards. What is happening now is that there are few bigger homes so they are scarcer and this drives prices up, so youngsters are extending and removing garages/lofts to make room.

I am sorry for families if this is the case. If one has a huge family home which both my grandparents owned. I used to love tearing around the grounds while on holiday.
My sons have bigger houses than myself, especially one who has a mass of land in NZ

Allira

^My family do not live near me so when they visit they stay with me. Am I supposed to put them up in a Travel Lodge?^

Same here - especially as two bedrooms are filled with "stuff" that they use when they come.

We stay in a Premier Inn when we visit DS and family. We used to stay with his MiL, but she is 90 this year and we had started taking all our own bedding, towels etc, which meant changing the beds twice for a three night stay. so hotel it is.

Staying with them means taking ovet there bedroom, which is cluttered with stuff. Hotel is by far the best option

My husband's lovely aunt simply exchanged her huge house with a big garden facing Epsom Common for a much smaller one with a smaller garden, virtually round the corner.

She had met a young couple with small children (three i think) and was happy to exchange. I actually think it was her idea.

The house she left was way too big for her and the one she moved into, though 3 bed was much smaller. The young family did stay in contact with her until she died. No money changed hands. "Well, she said, they need a bigger home and were a terrific help with the move".

Sometimes a house is not an investment - it is somewhere to live that you are happy.

She was a truly lovely lady.
I was not surprised she did this.

More to the point, do these youngsters think they could afford our larger family homes? I dont think where we live affects them in the slightest. Just another reason to bash the boomers and beyond!

I would love to move to a bungalow due to my increasing mobility problems, however in the area I live there aren’t many I could afford and then when you add stamp duty on top I find them really expensive and that’s without probably having to replace kitchen and bathroom etc.
It may be an incentive if the stamp duty was either scrapped or lowered for over 60s who usually only have pensions to live on

To me this kind of suggestion is typical of the relatively small proportio n of young people who seem to believe that the world owes them a living. News Flash: it doesn't,

We worked hard to be able to buy our homes, and saved hard too. If we want to move, we will move. If not, then we will stay where we are, until or unless ill-health forces us to move.

No-one has a moral obligation to move out of accomodation they like living in.

Admittedly, property prices are high and may will be artificially inflated for all I know, but that will not change so long as buyers either have the money to pay the asking price or can persuade their bank or building society to let them take out a mortgage.

How ridiculous! I bought my house, it's my prooerty and I love where I stay. We worked hard to get our home. Maybe if builders build more bungalows instead of 3/4/5 bed homes that could free up larger properties

Swapping houses was what I did with my mother. So when I left university, I became the owner of a 2 bed flat, but when I got married I moved into her 4 bed house, (to fill it with children!), and she moved into my flat.

Maybe not move, but I think we should maintain them as family homes. We have a 3 bed close to very good schools, Gp surgery and shops, ideal for family living, however our neighbours has just had their bayh taken out and a walk in shower installed, not really family friendly when you have little children, I would have hated to miss out on bathtime fun with my Dd when she was small. Similar with gardens, keep the grassed areas and don't pave over most of the garden

Greciangirl

I would love to be able to buy a new build house and gift my present house to my daughter.

What an envious and privileged position to be in.

I didn't mean I would gift the house, although I agree that it would be lovely to be able to do that. I have no idea how it would work, as it's never going to happen, but maybe they could buy a smaller house and we could swap - something like that.

One of the situations affecting the availability of properties in my area ( a seaside town ninety minutes train ride from London) is the huge growth in the Airbnb market.
The returns are good, and none of the potential problems of difficulties with tenants arise.
I have spoken before about an acquaintance who has lived for many years in an attractive Victorian terraced house, in a row of six .
Over years, as each neighbours moved out, the other five have become holiday lets.
None of these houses are, now, available for local families to buy, or rent, and the responsibility for this does not lie with my retired friend living at number one.

The youngsters are all moaning they can't afford to get on the housing ladder and many of them are staying at mum and dad's until they die

watermeadow. "There are lots of retirement flats with huge service charges.
There are also lots of old council houses with three bedrooms, occupied mainly by single old people. They couldn’t down-size if they wanted to as there is nowhere at all which is smaller and cheaper.
The answer is, of course, to build lots and lots of affordable homes and housing association homes. That’s not going to happen as builders are only interested in large expensive houses".

We can see this in our area, there are more than 3000 new properties either built or in the planning stage (mainly flats) but a relatively small proportion are social housing or "affordable".
Large developers are doing the work, and many are not suitable for families as they are quite small and have no outside space other than in some cases a small balcony. The ones built for profit are relatively luxurious with extra bathrooms and expensive finishes.
Initially the service charges are not too bad, but we all know that these will go up dramatically as the building ages. There are lifts in the buildings so they could be suitable for older people. However most cost over £435K even for a one bed flat, though a very limited number of "affordable" homes start at £355 with deposit top-ups.

Certainly not, I was married at 19 with a 30 year mortgage, nobody helped me, we weren't an entitled generation

I admit I have not read all the posts here, but for me.....

if only there were being built suitable houses for those of us on their own, affordable etc.... then we could consider it.... make suitable and affordable and many of us would continue to downsize.....

Allira

^I’m sure things will change in future. I think there are plans to add one’s pension pot in to the final estate.^

There probably are, but why? Surely one's private pension pot dies with you. Pension providers/insurance companies are the ones who gain anyway as many people never receive the full amount plus interest back in annuities.

A private pension that you've saved for yourself does not die with you, unless you've used your pension pot to pay for an annuity. A company pension may be payable (perhaps at a lower rate) to your spouse, but the company's pension pot never does belong do you.
I think that you are right, changes mean that your private pension pot will become part of your estate.

watermeadow

I live in an old cottage, two-up, two-down so could hardly down-size but I need to move to somewhere without stairs or on a steep hill.
There are no bungalows or ground floor flats for sale here under £500,000. There are lots of retirement flats with huge service charges.
There are also lots of old council houses with three bedrooms, occupied mainly by single old people. They couldn’t down-size if they wanted to as there is nowhere at all which is smaller and cheaper.
The answer is, of course, to build lots and lots of affordable homes and housing association homes. That’s not going to happen as builders are only interested in large expensive houses.

Where I lived previously it was not unusual for a housing association to convert a larger house into smaller flats, costing less than small new-build properties, despite the cost of adding suitable bathrooms and kitchens.

MaggsMcG

This is just my opinion: if people are in council or housing association I feel they should be encouraged to downsize, even if they have lived there a long time.
However the council and HA need to give them an incentive because moving isn't cheap and decorating probably needs doing.
I do think if people are in their own owned homes its up to them. Again, its blinking more expensive and disruptive for home owners to move.

Yes I agree that tenants need to be offered an incentive, perhaps help with moving and decorating, maybe with replacing old flooring? The usefulness of having a larger property on their books would mean a lot in monetary terms to a local authrority or HA as their stock of empty family homes is usually very low.

I live in an old cottage, two-up, two-down so could hardly down-size but I need to move to somewhere without stairs or on a steep hill.
There are no bungalows or ground floor flats for sale here under £500,000. There are lots of retirement flats with huge service charges.
There are also lots of old council houses with three bedrooms, occupied mainly by single old people. They couldn’t down-size if they wanted to as there is nowhere at all which is smaller and cheaper.
The answer is, of course, to build lots and lots of affordable homes and housing association homes. That’s not going to happen as builders are only interested in large expensive houses.

I’m sure things will change in future. I think there are plans to add one’s pension pot in to the final estate.

There probably are, but why? Surely one's private pension pot dies with you. Pension providers/insurance companies are the ones who gain anyway as many people never receive the full amount plus interest back in annuities.

HobbyCat

I’m in social housing with my adult autistic son and we recently downsized from a 3 bed to a 2. The house we were in was a large 3 bed and the house we’ve moved into is a largish 2 bed. I think it was a great move for us. I found it really difficult keeping up with the housework on top of working and caring for my son.

My son's MIL is still rattling around alone in a three bedroom house since her husband died several years ago. The council have not maintained the property well and it needs quite a lot of money spending on it.
She knows it would be better for her to move and she would be happier, but she needs encouragement and so far has only been offered flats in different areas which do not appeal to her at all.

I’m in social housing with my adult autistic son and we recently downsized from a 3 bed to a 2. The house we were in was a large 3 bed and the house we’ve moved into is a largish 2 bed. I think it was a great move for us. I found it really difficult keeping up with the housework on top of working and caring for my son.

When I was a child in the 50's many of the council houses built were small properties for the elderly, obviously they were cheaper to build than family homes and were used to free larger social housing for families.
I don't really see any objection to moving older people who are in social housing to smaller properties, provided they are local to where they live and there are good facilities inside and outside their new homes.
Obviously if someone owns their own home it is up to them whether or not they downsize, but it is something that I have chosen to do and am happy that I did it.

Just a query Tenko but if you sell a big property because of possible IT, surely you’d still have the same amount of wealth to be assessed when you die? Perhaps you’re much younger than me (and others here) and just plan to spend it.
I’m sure you’re fully aware, but for others - at the moment, you’d inherit your spouse’s tax free allowance, plus £175 main dwelling allowance, so for a widow/er, one’s estate could be around £800K before tax is due.

I’m sure things will change in future. I think there are plans to add one’s pension pot in to the final estate.