One in five over-55s wants to downsize

grizzly1911

I think one of the biggies these days are the heating costs which have increased way over and above inflation. When you are on a relatively "fixed" income they take some absorbing compounded year on year.

Why have a big property if you are cold and uncomfortable, as you get older, in it for half a year.

That and garden and property maintenance costs on older properties.

angrypirate

Question is, as more and more baby boomers downsize, will there be a glut of larger family houses (4/5 bedrooms) appearing on the market? If so, how will this effect the market in general. Cash rich baby boomers outbidding FTBS for the smaller houses whilst 2nd/3rd time buyers buying family homes will have a glut of properties to choose from. It could close the market right up and we may see 2 bed houses not much cheaper than 4 bed houses.

System

If 1 in 5 want to downsize, that means that 4 in 5 don't.

Why then the attention on downsizing? Wouldn't a better headline be:

"80% of old people have no intention of downsizing" ?

michaels

My parents 'downsized' to somewhere much further from all their kids...?

Thrugelmir

grizzly1911 wrote: »

It would be interesting to see a graph showing the rising trend as people get older. I am sure that 20% is heavily skewed to the right. I wouldn't be surprised that people in the late60s/70s are downsizing in large numbers.

An issue that's been highlighted for a while. Downsizing for some people is the only option.

Pensioners in Debt.
According to the English Housing survey by the Department of Communities and Local Government (DCLG) nearly 250,000 people over the state pension age have unpaid mortgage debt.
More than 1.3 million households aged 55 or over are still paying off their mortgage, which is the equivalent of 6 per cent of all households.
This is largely due to the fact that more than 25 per cent of all loans to older borrowers are interest only loans and these are due to be repaid or refinanced by December 2016.
Many Britons also fear that basic household cost such as utilities, rent and mortgage payments will rise in the coming months, further squeezing already tight household budgets.
Figures show that more than a third of households say they are paying more than they were three months ago.
Interest only mortgages were hugely popular before the banking crisis because payments were lower, but they were frowned upon by regulators now unless the borrower can demonstrate how the principle will be repaid.
So it seems that many older borrowers with interest only loans will now face serious refinancing debt. With the regulators cracking down on interest only deals and rates expected to rise in the next two years, this particular group is unlikely to be offered equivalent terms to those they are already on.
The Financial Services Authority (FSA) estimates that lenders are owed around £120 billion in interest only loans over the next 10 years.
Therefore pensioners should start to pay off their principle debt while they still have sufficient income to do so.

http://news.mortgagerates.org.uk/pensioners-in-debt/

Going4TheDream

grizzly1911 wrote: »

I think one of the biggies these days are the heating costs which have increased way over and above inflation. When you are on a relatively "fixed" income they take some absorbing compounded year on year.

Why have a big property if you are cold and uncomfortable, as you get older, in it for half a year.

That and garden and property maintenance costs on older properties.

I think this is true we bought our house from an old man who could no longer look after himself and was moving into a residential home for older folk. The house was in a very bad state of repair, the garden was totally overgrown, he had never married and inherited the house from his mum who he lived his whole life with.

It had no heating except from a gas fire in the back lounge, no real bathroom and no real kitchen. I think he lived mostly in the back lounge, I dont think it was a life more of an existence for him

We have totally refurbished the house over the years and it is a wonderful home but its is huge and we have often talked about how we will manage the bills and upkeep when we are 80. Currently on average our winter bills were about £175 a month excluding fuel for the wood burner and it wasnt in any way tropical! Our council tax is pushing £2k a year.

I know we will downsize in the near future and we are not anywhere near the over 55 bracket for a good while yet and as our life changes we will change our house to suit, it makes good economical sense to us

grizzly1911

Going4TheDream wrote: »

I think Currently on average our winter bills were about £175 a month excluding fuel for the wood burner and it wasnt in any way tropical! Our council tax is pushing £2k a year.

it makes good economical sense to us

The person I am assisting is on there own but with an band G property and energy bills approaching £2K p.a.

If energy bills keep on increasing at 10/15% a year give another three years and it could be closer to £3k p.a.

The move should halve the CT and energy bills should be less than 40% of current levels.

black_taxi_2

just turned 52,single

i hav a small 1 bedroom flat in a nice area

positives

1.Can afford hav heating full on on during winter(only hav had central heating 2 years--cant live without it now)
2.lower council tax band
3.easy to keep tidy
4.flatscreen tv built into wall/sound system--makes my livingroom a wee cinema
5.not a huge kitchen--but i have nice cafes/restaurants nearby

negative

1.no bath,just shower
2.no garden

future

a retirement flat with bath?

neverdespairgirl

michaels wrote: »

My parents 'downsized' to somewhere much further from all their kids...?

My parents downsized further from one of their children (me), neutral as to my brother (he's working in South Korea) and much closer to my sisters. They sold their London house just before Christmas, and moved to their Kent house, where one of my sisters lives. The other is 1/2 mile away.