All old people should sell up family homes for families.

@Kazzyhoward 🌻

The distress caused by change is so very real. Even little things - which, unless you are party to it, you just wouldn’t think would have an impact.

Thank god a move can’t be forced upon my folks.

Also, I don’t think that people should be penalised by taxing them after working all their days to have their own home. Just because someone decides they have a bedroom too many.

Funnily enough, banking on them actually reading the census and seeing that I work full time shift work and how many hours I spend ‘caring’ on top of that, no one has been chapping on the door to offer any form of help, any allowance so that perhaps I could maybe cut some hours, or any respite care.

If anyone came to the door suggesting my folks have to move or else we’d be facing some type of tax punishment, they’d be met with my girny auld coupon and a slightly questionable hand gesture.

Not to mention the sight of a frazzled woman having a full on chorlton and the wheelies little old lady style meltdown.

No it isn't, it's just your maths thats simple. The economic situation is far, far different now than before. The price to wage ratio is much higher than in the 70's when interest rates were high. So the rates now are the equivalent of then. There was a huge housebuilding boom post war and we have not built enough properties and not enough of what was needed, plus we incentivised people to invest in BTL. We have inflation, extotionate childcare costs and a need for two working parents in a household to make ends meet. It really, really isn't simple maths. The economy and the way it affects social dynamics is a very, very complex system.

Plus if we all stopped having kids when house prices became unaffordable we'd have a massive pension crisis eventually as the workforce would be massively depleted. And by the way, your house wouldn't be worth much eventually as there would be fewer people able to buy it.

That's common in London because stamp duty makes moving so ££££ & there are a lot more 3 bed terraces then 4 bed semis or whatever. Although with the cost of building work & borrowing money it's unlikely to be as common going forward.

Maybe slightly off topic but lots of people moan about older folks 'hogging' the good big houses but all the friends in our circle in London bought 3 bed (what used to be) starter homes, and with the new relaxed development laws - added a bedroom or two in the loft, side return and rear extensions. Effectively doubling the square footage of their properties and being really pleased (quite rightly) that they added massive value to their homes converting from a 3 to a 5 bed. Every property TV show gives the same advice! These homes price out young families in flats out of the market and leaves no where empty nesters to downsize too even if they wanted to.

FIL lives in a huge house and wants to downsize and move to our village but every bungalow and small house (ours included) has mutated into million pound pads!

Nope it's simple maths , you have more kids than you can afford then you definatly are not going to be able to afford to buy the house you're going to eventually need .

Yes it is simple maths, birth rates have dropped in part because of the cost & the fact first time mothers are much older. Most people do try & buy before they have dc but saving can take years.

Also if some people wait to buy before they have dc they will never have dc so it's not unsurprising some don't want to wait.

And there is a lot less social housing now, simple maths as you say. But I guess it was ok in the past to have dc & need social housing but now it's not?

I think people who have more than one home or those who have more than ten bedrooms in their ridiculous mansions should be ahead of old people in this.

Just myob.

Aibu wouldn't exist then! 🤣🤣

Nope it's simple maths , you have more kids than you can afford then you definatly are not going to be able to afford to buy the house you're going to eventually need .
No matter how many oldies sell up .

Why does the pm need chequers?
Why do the royal family flit between palaces and castles?
Why is it that nobody ever questions how many homes the rich have but are appalled that Bev and Kev are over 70 and they still live in a 4 bed house?
Just myob.

yes iphones are definitely why people can't afford houses.

Generation I want it all, but I want it now now when I'm old like a boomer

I'm middle aged but I see why people get frustrated with this nonsense, luckily not all boomers are stupid.

@LindaShoelace I'm with you on the 'plan' for the end! And at our age, retirement housing would be hell-on-earth.

However, where I live there was a proposal for a new build retirement village, actually not far from the town, shops etc. There was vigorous opposition I suspect mostly from house builders who could make massively more money by filling it with 3 storey town houses and appartment blocks but the reality is that there are NO realistic options for older people who might want to downsize and to plan for the next 20 years, taking into account deteriorating health.

We know the demographics, but our planning and housing system is not planning for something that is entirely predictable.

It may not be down to kids but may be they should stop buying the latest iPhone, or expecting a 4 bed detached in a nice area as their first home out of Uni and new car.

Generation I want it all, but I want it now now when I'm old like a boomer 😂

So many old people -and people are living very long lives - develop dementia that the state would be bankrupted if there wasn't that stock of property to sell off to help pay for it. Just imagine the cost to the state. I know it stinks when your mum and dad worked their backsides off for years paying mortgages at sky-high interest, thinking they were going to 'leave something' to you, but I can't really see mass downsizing as viable, given that dementia nursing care costs about £40K a year per person. Perhaps for this reason, the govt doesn't do much to encourage it? But I also think that downsizing to a sheltered dwelling/flat works better for people as they are getting older, moving from homes with stairs etc, catering for themselves on a more manageable scale, is more secure, and frees up housing stock for families. From personal experience, I know my parents were very reluctant to give up their home, garden etc, even though they struggled on a practical level as the years progressed.

Hear freaking hear.

I think single, child free people get screwed over enough as it is never mind wanting to take their homes from them as well. Why should somebody live in a one bedroom gardenless flat just because they chose not to have children.

Imagine ...." Sorry Edith, I know your children have grown up and your husband's died but time to shift out of your family home of 50 years as you're taking up too much space"

Of course we shouldn’t expect older people to move. DH & I are 40 & 39 years old and unlikely to have children now. We live in a two bed flat and as we only need one bedroom should we move.

My DM is 64 and DF is 69 and they live in a four bed bungalow should they now move even though they love having their four grandchildren to stay and at Christmas time, Easter etc there is room for the 12 of us to all eat together (I have two married siblings).

My DFIL is 72 and as a joiner to trade is building his own 4 bed home with the help of DMIL who is 69. My in-laws have 3 children between them, 5 grandchildren and a great grandchild on the way. Should they not have the house of their dreams so they can have everyone round.

Despite being 72 years old my DFIL is according to his doctor still middle aged. They no longer use an arbitrary age to determine when you are elderly but take it on a case by case basis. Similarly DMIL has Neuroendocrine Tumours (NETS)and had to go to the doctor before they would consider trying a new treatment as they wanted to know if she would physically benefit from it. Her NETS are incurable but the treatment has for the past four years stopped the tumours getting any bigger. So what age do you pick for people to have to start downsizing?

Is boomer supposed to be an insult? I'm not in that age group but posts like this makes me glad I'm not in the bracket that thinks like this pathetic shit.

My parents adored the large old house that they lived in for 50 years until my mother died. They went without holidays and new cars for a long time to afford it and restored it beautifully. They looked to downsize many times but a 2 bed house usually means tiny rooms. My mother, especially, wanted a good sized living room and a decent sized bedroom. Everything else she would compromise on. My father only sold up when she died last year. It's still a family sized modern home but he likes the space and he can afford it.

I think there are many people out there who may have to admit that they have had way more children than they could actually accommodate both financially and with housing needs

Can we stop with the trope of people having too many dc! Birth rates are much lower than previous generations! And the reason people can't afford houses nowadays has far more to do with salaries vs house prices 🙄

So don't help the young. Help the old. Tell us you are a boomer without telling us you are a boomer

So true , lots of let's boot the oldies out .
I think there are many people out there who may have to admit that they have had way more children than they could actually accommodate both financially and with housing needs . I live in a house that many would think I should downsize probably even my kids but trust me if one of my kids lives went tits up they would be mewing on the doorstep to move back in !🙄

When people come out with this claptrap, they're living in Cloud Cuckoo Labour Land. In real life, people who have bought their own houses can do what the hell they like with them. I like my house and I'm staying here until I'm carried out in a box.

Obviously you can’t force people out of their homes but I do think there should be council tax incentives for people to move out of homes that are disproportionately large for their needs.

You can have a go but I'm still not moving. It'd take a long time for me to make back the money I'd spent on selling my house and buying a new one.

@Kazzyhoward 100% agree. I posted this earlier, but it is exactly what you have experienced.

My Dad had only ever lived in two houses - the one he was born in, and then the one they bought when they married. 57 years in the same house meant that as his dementia progressed he could still find the fridge, the bathroom, knew exactly which drawer his watch was kept in, the exact turn in the stair etc. Muscle memory kept him safe when his cognitive memory was in decline. Short spells in an unfamiliar environment and he was a lost soul, back at home he walked into the kitchen and made scrambled eggs (as he had being doing for the previous 50+ years).

Obviously you can’t force people out of their homes but I do think there should be council tax incentives for people to move out of homes that are disproportionately large for their needs.

So let me guess your a labour voter, what part of these people who worked hard all their life, paid their taxes and paid interest on their mortgages to get their home is offensive to you. They spent their working lives to buy some thing to own and grow old in. What gives you the right to say they should penalised in more tax for them to live in some thing they have legitimately earned the right to own?