All old people should sell up family homes for families.

The way the property market works is that it is focused on profit.
Profit comes from people taking out mortgages.
Older, retired people don't take out big mortgages.
Therefore the property market tends to ignore them.
There's no investment made in nice, 2 bed bungalows with little gardens.

That sort of low density housing is much more costly to produce than 100 semi-Ds or terraced new builds aimed at couples with two incomes who will take out a 30yr mortgage.

The property market and developers wants these young couples who take out hefty mortgages.

Older people do not want to live in large apartment blocks with rowdy neighbours, lots of stairs and no garden.
There may be very little for them to downsize to in their locality.

As I said, I don't think it should be enforced. But I do think that taxation should probably shift towards wealth, including that held in homes, which might help to encourage it.

I agree with this & something really needs to be done about wages

This.

@Needmorelego of course but it's a crazy situation when potential inheritance is more important when it comes to owning a home than your salary.

You could also use the same argument to say that houses are taken up by families who split up and each parent wanting a house big enough for the children to stay. Result - two family homes required for one family.

@watersprites yes I am incredibly grateful I will one day inherit my parents house. Incredibly grateful and thankful.
They are off the era when they would have got a council house easily. My Dad grew up in one.
They chose to buy instead - only being able to because of some type of government scheme.
My generation have very little hope of a council house. I have had to privately rent all my adult life.
My grandparents council house was theirs until my Granny passed and Grampy went into a home. It went back into the council stock - but the next tenants bought it under right to buy as soon as they could. It was recently up for sale. At a crazy high price that an average wage family can only dream of.
Housing in this country sucks.

My dear step father (early 70s) has discussed downsizing from his three bed family home for several years. This conversation however has been heavily influenced by his biological child & their spouse who want to upsize and expect him to fund it (he paid their initial house deposit), but just this week he has said he'd rather see out his days in his home.

He's getting frailer so I'm glad he won't have the additional stress of house buying and moving to deal with. It's been his home for the past 40 years and he shouldn't feel pressured into moving out. One day (hopefully not for a while 🙏) he will die and then it will become available for a family to buy.

My parents bought a nice 4 bed detatched house in a lovely area and they are perfectly content there. The fact it is 4 bed rooms is irrelevant to me they worked dam hard all their lives and paid for it and its their dream home in a good location.

If they want to live out the rest of their lives in it, its no body's bloody business.

@Againstmachine , I don’t think it’s all that new. Building societies were started IIRC early in the 20thC - both my sets of grandparents bought their own homes in the 1920s. And no, they weren’t bloated plutocrats or anything like it - just very ordinary people in very ordinary jobs, and both houses - one a 3 bed semi in SE London, one a small bungalow in pretty rural Herts, were extremely modest.

Gosh: in your shoes I'd be really concerned that I didn't pass on my sense of defeatism and hopelessness to your daughter.

There absolutely isn’t. There is a surplus of large homes. What there is a shortage of is affordable homes.

To downsize there needs to be attractive property to go to that is also suitable to grow older in. A starter home is often not suitable as an ender home.

That tends to mean mean more bungalows with reasonable gardens or more apartments with good onsite help, outdoor access to communal garden and reliable lifts etc. And that welcomes pets. Preferably in peaceful locations. Obviously, that's not everyone's preference but everyone I've know that has grown old independently tend to have done so in a single storey property in the end and has kept a small dog or cat for most that time. Those that haven't - it has been because they specifically did not want to leave the home they've raised their family in.

Its not that simple though is it my mum.and dad both 81 live in a large four bedroom semi just the two.of them its in s nice village and house prices have sky rocketed even in the Northwest many young families wouldn't be able to afford their house even if they were selling
My mum is very disabled now so they just live down stairs they have turned what was their dining room into a bedroom and they have a downstairs toilet and shower room anyway ( as well.as a bathroom upstairs ) i.would love the room they have.

No. There is a huge shortage of families homes.

To the point where it is affecting fertility rates. More homes = more affordable.

DH and I are planning to downsize; we want to move to a bungalow before we start having problems with stairs - but there are very few bungalows round here. No-one is building new ones, and the ones that do exist are rapidly being extended, usually by having an extra storey added.

I don’t think OP is saying old people should move, but asking how people who say old people should move support their opinion.

I’d say it can work, though only if the old person genuinely wants to and hasn’t been pressured or emotionally blackmailed.

Even then a house move is massively disruptive, and adjusting to new surroundings can be perplexing. Leaving neighbours and friends they used to see every day may be much more of a loss than expected.

One of my relatives moved to a fantastic retirement home in her late 70s. A comfortable one-bed flat in a block with cafeteria, library, common rooms and all kinds of services and leisure activities organised. She had a great time till dementia started in her 80s. Now she lives with her devoted daughter and son-in-law who luckily have a big house.

One of my in-laws, a healthy and fairly active woman in her 80s, was forced out of her home, under moral pressure from her offspring. She moved to quite a decent home but went downhill fast and died within the year. A very sad end to a harmless life.

I don't think anything like this should ever be enforced. However, now that our kids are university age I am starting to think about moving in the next 10 years to something somewhat smaller. Not to a very small house or flat, but something more closely matching our needs and easier/cheaper/greener to run than our current rather large house and garden. In an ideal world, it would be a self-build to get just exactly what we want, but in practice they may be a challenge. It would release funds to help our children to buy bigger homes of their own. Seems to make much more sense than us sitting on it all!

As I said, I don't think it should be enforced. But I do think that taxation should probably shift towards wealth, including that held in homes, which might help to encourage it.

Op is beyond stupid.

the irony!

I believe in capitalism so if one person is able to buy a bigger house than another that's absolutely fine. As for what is "too big" just depends on the individual. We bought this 5 bed in part because we have 5 children and also because I have worked fro home since the 90s as did. Today for example 3 of us are working from home here n 3 separate rooms - in fact in a 4th room too earlier as I had clients here for a meeting. I hope to work until I die so I don't really see me needing less space. Also a big detached house with garden is in a sense buying a buffer to be away from other people on all sides.

The state anyway has chosen to make older people not leave big houses because stamp duty land tax is so high.

Did you read it though?

I did read that the classic suburban 3 bed with off street parking/garden will become very in demand as downsizers will want them and growing family as there isn't enough supply near amenities.

No…we need more suitable housing.

Also many older people DO want to downsize, but go where? My parents live in a cheap but ‘sought after’ area, train station, great transport links, near a park people travel miles to get to, loads of schools, good shops but they have no other savings or investments and bungalows here are around x2 the value of their current home. Their only hope is an old council bungalow which go quickly but cheapish and usually have endless repairs

What age?

Who decides?

Now people can even live in their own homes in peace?
Jesus!

Can younger families even afford these houses?

I don’t understand this who deserves this and that thinking at all.
If you can’t find/afford big house, stop having so many children, no one need multiple kids.
So what if two people, hell even one person wants to live in a big house?

Op is beyond stupid.

People often talk about this, it isn't a right actually own a house, it is a relatively new phenomenon.

So what should young people do? Why should they pay more in rent than a mortgage? It's not a right but society depends on a contract. The UK hasn't invested in young people & now we have less of them & more will emigrate I'm sure.