A slippery slope to being forced to downsize?

Good point about the cost of moving versus the cost of gardening/cleaning help.

Our land is far too much work for the two of us and DD and her boys have yet to show a smidgeon of interest but we have good help in the garden once a week which makes a huge difference. We have also invested in a ride-on mower, high reach hedge trimmer/brushcutter etc., etc.

I really hate housework so small is beautiful

We had friends around today and we got round to chatting about the old people downsizing issue. Neither of us could think of a single contemporary who had downsized to a two bedroomed property, let alone one in a retirement complex.

Quite a number of people, including us, have moved on retiring or in preparation for retirement. People have moved to be near children, to a new area where they want to spend their retirement, or to release some of the capital, but the new property has always been another house, at times a bigger house or a bigger garden. All have wanted properties with at least three bedrooms.

We know that eventually we may need to move to a smaller more compact property, but cannot see that happening in the near future. As I have said my parents downsized and regretted it.

Welshwife, your comment about the vacant houses which could be put back into the market is right on the button. I live in a small village and there are two houses that have been unoccupied for a number of years which is not satisfactory. They are not deteriorating as far as I know but what a waste. Shouldn't local government be looking at these as a good source of housing?

Too many new homes of all sizes are being snapped up by Buy to Letters, as are many pre-existant homes.

Many of the people telling us to move on are the owners of such properties and our family houses are more likely to be bought up to be let than to be occupied by an owner occupier family.

I am not sure it is fair to blame all buy to let landlords, for a variety of reasons some people need to rent. A friend of ours was forced into early retirement and spent his pension money on two buy to let properties to give him an income for life. Is that so wrong?

Not really Nonnie but what is wrong is the lack of any sort of rent control that means people are sometimes paying very high rents which are often subsidised by housing benefit. In other words we are helping to pay the rents.
I wouldn't mind downsizing, but I have a large list of 'must haves' that mean there isn't much property around I would find suitable.
I remember reading years ago a proposal by someone that the ideal housing solution would be a house divided into 2 flats where parents and children/grandchildren live together, moving from one to the other as things change. So couple with young children downstairs, parents upstairs, when kids are older family move upstairs and grandparents down stairs. Trouble is most of us have families living elsewhere.

I think the Council Tax discount on 2nd homes should be reviewed. If someone can afford to own a 2nd home, then they should pay the full amount - even if you inherit a 2nd property. I realise that CT is a local tax for local services, but a 2nd property is an investment, so others should not be subsidising that investment especially at a time when Local Authorities are strapped for cash.

trisher in the USA there is a type of property just like that but I can't remember what it's called. It's origin is based on renting out party of your home to bring in an income. It's like the American version of our semi-detached, except that the entrance to the rental part of the property is inside the body of the building. The division can be up and down or side by side. We convert houses into flats, but usually each property has its own private entrance and that's the difference. I've always liked the idea.

I've been investigating current house prices round here for friends who fancy moving and downsizing, but not too much. However it looks like they would have to go for a 2-bed apartment as house prices here are very high and they could not sell their house at anything like the price of an equivalent (or even smaller) type property.

So it's not that easy.

Also, and this is another problem, the apartments round here all come with a 'service charge' which seems to average £120 a month.

There are some flats near us which have just not sold apart from a few; the service charge is high - DH says about £2,000 pa.

Small bungalows can be as expensive as larger houses as well, they are few and far between and sit on as much land.

My dearest friend and husband downsized because they just could not shovel snow in the winter. They had a flight of steps to the house as well. This is compulsory in Germany. They live in a spacious 2 bed flat but have all their children nearby so need no spare rooms.

We can't imagine living like that peacefully together. Each of us needs their own space. We walk about our house, climb stairs and do the garden. We also clear snow but don't have much to get rid of. The house keeps us active and my friend just sits or cooks in her mini -kitchen.

Never, not for me until I must.

No, of course buy to let is not inherently bad and there will always be those who need to rent but in recent year the sector has boomed and in recent days the Bank of England has raised concern about the size of the sector and the house price instability it may cause if interest rates go up.

Between 1999 and 2011, the number of outstanding buy-to-let mortgages
grew from 73,200 to 1.39 million, plus of course there are the BtL houses boight outright. In 2015 1 in 5 properties is a rented property.

Now while I have no problems with buy to let per se, I was one of the fraternity myself for a few years. Initially the majority of properties bought for BtL were 1/2 bedroomed properties so potential owner occupiers were being pushed out of the market by the price rises from the competition from the, generally, better funded BtL purchasers. Now, BtL investors are buying bigger family houses. There is a development of houses nearly oppositemy home, most of the houses have 4-5 bedrooms. Some of these were advertised forrent even before the developer had finished building them. Rents were in the region of £2,000 a month.

The point I am making, in a very long-winded way is: the problem of the lack of family houses doesn't lie with the elderly. It lies more with young buyers being priced out of the started home market and now being priced out of the family home market by competition from BtL investors.

Margaretx

I was grumbling to myself as I cleaned the house (sort of!) and climbed the steps to hang out the washing today, but then I began to wonder how I would manage without a utility room, somewhere to sit and eat, somewhere to put all the junk things we have accumulated over the years.

It would be cheaper to pay a cleaner and gardener when we need one than to move to something smaller, I think.
And where would the family stay, as some of them live overseas?

and we need a garage/workshop for DH to disappear into
Or I do!

Just had a call from a DF, in her early 70s who was widowed last year. She has got a buyer for her current home, a large family home with 5 bedrooms and a huge garden.

She is buying, not a 2 bedroomed flat but a 3 bedroomed property with an extended ground floor which gives her as much living space as she had before. As she says she wants fewer bedrooms and less garden but she needs as much living space because she has a lot of hobbies like sewing and craft that need a dedicated space and she still entertains a lot. She reckons that the retirement flat is at least 15 years down the road.

That sounds ideal, large enough to move downstairs if the need ever arises.