It is estimated that every month the average homeowner spends an extra £100, and 12.6 hours of their time, running and maintaining a property that is too big for them. Yet a third of older Londoners surveyed recently said that the home they live in is too large for their needs. So why do these householders choose not to downsize?
The survey which was carried out by Zoopla received 2,000 respondents living in London. On average, the home owners surveyed had owned their property for 27 years, meaning many would have a significant amount of equity in their property.
The average respondent aged over 65 lives in a three bedroom home with space that is surplus to their needs, at an average 1.3 spare bedrooms. Almost 40% have two or more spare bedrooms, and 8% said they never used their spare bedrooms over the course of a year.
Zoopla says that holding on to too-large properties was impacting first time buyers as well as second steppers. This is because the the average first time buyer is now 34 years old, making them more likely to need a family sized home rather than a starter property.
Three bedroom houses are the most in-demand property type in the UK, and it is these homes that are most likely to kept by their older owners.
So why not downsize?
The ability to host Christmas was cited by a third of those surveyed, although two thirds said they still did not use all their rooms at this time. Only a third hosted Christmas every single year.
The stress of downsizing was another reason provided, as well as emotional ties to the property and the wish to eventually allow descendants to inherit the family home.
When asked whether they had ever considered downsizing, 40% said they had not. A further 15% had consciously decided not to and 10% had already downsized but to a property that was still too large for their needs.
Only 27% were actively looking to buy a smaller property.
Can downsizing be encouraged?
Stamp duty incentives for those who downsize might help people to move to a smaller property and this has been proven when offered as an incentive for moving into assisted living or retirement properties. However, this market covers only 5% of properties and most people surveyed said they had no financial need to move.
Across England, there are now 5.4 million home owners aged over 65 and this demographic is expected to rise to almost 8 million in the next twenty years. Perhaps the provision of more attractive homes and locations more suitable for older people might better motivate home owners to downsize and release their family sized homes to families that actually need them.