Downsize to release funds for retirement

gorgeousme

Just wondering, who has or has planned to downsize to fund retirement?

Brie

Only in the vague sense that knowing that as there is no one to inherit our house and we have no desire to go into a care home if we can help it then yes we will be looking at equity release or downsizing.  But hopefully not for a good 20 years yet so nothing concrete in place. 

TadleyBaggie

I thought about it, but until son/partner/grandchild move out not an option.

af1963

Wouldn't depend on raising anything much from downsizing unless it's a big downsize, and maybe not even then. Whether you'd raise any significant amount depends where, and how big, your existing property and the new one are. Factor in legal fees and stamp duty, moving costs, possible redecoration.... 

One relative who did this ended up with about £60k net which was useful but wouldn't have funded a retirement. ( Fortunately they didn't need it to.)

artyboy

I can see us downsizing in 10 years or so, but the motivation will be more about getting a nicer cottage type place than the pile we have at the moment. Where we are is extraordinarily practical at a number of levels but I've never felt it was my forever home. 

If we can get something a bit cheaper it will also help with estate planning (IHT specifically)

HedgehogRulez

Aiming to upsize in retirement, not downsize!

Cairnpapple

Aiming to downsize in retirement, but plan A (downsizing into the city) wouldn't free up money and in fact might cost money. We do have a plan B of downsizing locally if we need more money, flats are very reasonable here. 9 years to go but I have started a big declutter already! 

penners324

Sell up and move somewhere very nice, while renting, seems a good idea.... 🤔

westv

HedgehogRulez said:

Aiming to upsize in retirement, not downsize!

We are planning to upside in value but not in size.

dunstonh

There are two frequent errors by those planning to downsize
1 -  is that they don't take into account costs.   The forget stamp duty, legal, cost of moving, cost of house clearance to remove things they cant take with them etc.
2 - When they start viewing smaller houses, they begin to realise that they have got used to the space and cannot envisage downsizing as much and end up with a much smaller amount after they revise the scale of their downsizing.

Cairnpapple

My model for downsizing is my friends a generation older than me who moved from a large suburban US house to a small 2 bed urban 'townhouse' (we would call it terraced) in a major US city. They had to buy a whole new house of furniture from IKEA because nothing from their old house would fit except for a couple of inherited pieces they'd brought over from the UK. I don't anticipate having exactly that issue (not least because half my stuff is IKEA anyway) but it does demonstrate the level of change that could be required!