To think more people should be incentivised to downsize?

[Sprockerdilerock]

I'm sure I will be flamed but here goes.

I know so many older adults who live in family size homes long after their children have left. Would it not be better for the government to offer incentives eg no stamp duty, removal costs paid for them to downsize to free them up for those that need them more?

We do have a housing shortage and I get that we could always build more homes, but we are also heading towards a climate crisis and surely it's better to use what resources we do have more efficiently and plough less energy into creating more.

My MIL is case in point - she still lives in the home my DH and his siblings grew up and often expresses a wish to downsize but she doesn't have a lot of money to spend on things like legal costs etc.

The housing in the best areas of my city are taken by multi occupancy student houses

There are less 2 bed bungalows available near me than there are 4 bed family homes.
I’m not spending the next 20 years repairing and caring for my home to move somewhere else to start again just so younger people can buy a house. Plus I’d quite like the spare bedrooms for when my children are adults and may want to come home for weekends or for my grandchildren want to stay over.

The three most expensive properties for sale in my village today are the only 3 bungalows. Someone needs to build more bungalows.

This thread is ridiculous. OP's idea clearly isn't thought out at all, it would never work, no one would agree on it. End of.

[quote Hollowtree3]@Wotsitsarecheesy, that sounds unusual. I live in an expensive city and a family home is way more expensive than a bungalow... unless of course they are only looking at 3/4 bedroom in which case it is still a family home they are looking at and not downsizing[/quote]
Two bed bungalows here are the same price as four bed family houses because the footprint is double the size and the plots have to be bigger. They’re also much scarcer so carry a premium.

YABU because if she sold up she’d have lots of profit and that pays for legal costs, stamp duty, and so forth. I do think we could have a culture of bridging loans though to make it easier to move before you get the money

[quote MrsTerryPratchett]The actual issue is that we have lived through the comodification of housing. Housing as a bank or investment, rather than as a home. It's not about this one issue, it's a wider, more complex one.

www.make-the-shift.org/[/quote]
This.

The thing is, people in big houses often don’t want to move and people in small houses can’t afford to buy the bigger houses. There’s no way round that really.

@lightand

I know many people who have downsized. After a few years, they are building on extentions to their new property!

but that is presumably because they have spare money and it makes sense to invest it in property because it's the obvious way to get a return on your investment. The overarching problem is that gvt have incentivized over investment in property, which has distorted the housing market and caused multiple social problems

It's my home that we worked hard to buy ...and run...for over 30 years and I don't want to sell it ....
We have four bedrooms and two bathrooms and large living space...there are only the two of us now but one day my grandchildren will hopefully sleep over in the rooms this mums slept I as children ..and I can't wait !

As long as it's just incentives and not forcing people to downsize against their wish.

I would actually like them to raise interest rates as I would like to make money on savings however that will cause a shit show for some.

It's not as simple as an older person just thinking they'll downshift. I know people who have done this and have been unhappy, missing space, gardens and their old neighbourhood. We're retired and decided to move nearer to our family - it was a massive decision. We had never expected to move from our rural cottage which we loved but decided to go for it. We compromised with a smaller garden, but I would have been miserable to have not had enough space for the things we had, in particular lovely furniture inherited from my parents. It gives me pleasure seeing it in our home, albeit not a period cottage but a new-ish house. The house we purchased had been on the market for a long time and we bought it from a couple with young children who were purchasing a much larger property. I've repurposed a bedroom for a dressing room, one bedroom will be for our grandchild and my husband does his crafts in one - so we utilise all our space. I can completely understand why elderly people aren't keen on downshifting.

[quote savemymuu]@FineWhiteBread did you pay inheritance tax out of interest? [/quote]
Of course.

An eye-watering amount.

I probably paid more in IHT than I would have paid to buy a smaller house.

A lot of the maligned baby boomers want to have something to pass on to their children, so that the DCs can have a house. If they sold now and downsized they could pass on the money, but it probably wouldn't be enough at that point to help their DCs buy a house.

And to those saying that wages have stagnated for at least 20 years, baby boomers were also working through that period with wages that didn't increase very much.

The answer is more housing to bring down prices, built with sensitivity to the environment, developers taking on the extra cost of reusing brownfield sites instead of always wanting green belt because it's easier and cheaper. If the government could incentivise that instead everyone would win and those pesky old folk could stay in their homes without being made to feel guilty.

A lot of the maligned baby boomers want to have something to pass on to their children, so that the DCs can have a house. If they sold now and downsized they could pass on the money, but it probably wouldn't be enough at that point to help their DCs buy a house.

I'm not sure that's true, much better to give a dc say 20k in their 20s to help them then 200k in their 40s/50s.

@FineWhiteBread just wondering as I know many people don't like IHT or can't pay it.

They shouldn’t of sold off council housing in the first place. A woman I spoke to said she only bought hers because she was worried the council would force her to later on. She said they got a big discount.

She was housebound so lived in the living room with the dining room converted to a bedroom. Hadn’t seen her kitchen or upstairs for years.

I'm looking at a one bedroom retirement flat near me. My 4 bed house is valued at the same price. I'm staying put for now.

[quote savemymuu]@FineWhiteBread just wondering as I know many people don't like IHT or can't pay it. [/quote]
The estate pays IHT and every estate on which it’s payable can afford it. It might need liquidating some assets.

someone is suggesting downsizers pay capital gains tax. how on earth is that going to help, as no-one is going to move if they have to pay stamp duty and capital gains tax before they even start redecorating/refitting kitchens and bathrooms.

if capital gains was stopped on selling rental properties then maybe more landlords would sell them and some might be suitable for families

I have a very large house. I bought it because I wanted it, could afford it, and to accommodate my visiting friends and family. No inheritance involved.
No intention of being incentivised out of it.
I grew up in a small overcrowded property, brought my own family up in a 'no spare rooms' property and for the first time ever have a house with vast amounts of space to live in, entertain and 'isolate without stress' during Covid crisis. We worked hard for it and now we have the reward of our hard work to enjoy.

There are lots of affordable large houses - but you may have to relocate to a cheaper area of the country, or get a doer upper and all the hassle and hard graft involved.

I've no aspiration to live in a bungalow at any age!

It is also though about space and privacy and peace and quiet. Generally you end up closer to neighbours, when down-sizing, possibly moving from a detached to a semi or terraced house which can bring issues other than just a smaller floor plan like noise, parking issues all sorts.

@VinylDetective your back dear! got your glasses this time?

@Sprockerdilerock - DH & I downsized when Dcs went to university - Are we freeing up a bigger house for those who have bigger families or are we taking a smaller house away from those who do not need a big house -? would have loved loved a stamp duty incentive - but did not get one - we did it anyway because we were able to move locally without thinking that house was our life but still had friend and neighbours etc,