All old people should sell up family homes for families.

[benigogo]

Not really an AIBU, more a hypothetical question really. This view comes up a lot on MN, and I'm interested in the detail of what people actually imagine when they say it. What type of property should they be giving up? What type of property should they be moving to? How old is old? What about younger people who under occupy a property? For example 2 friend couples, have recently downsized. Both from a 4 bed detached, one to a 4 bed semi, and the other to a 3 bed semi. Their homes were bought, one by a young professional couple, and the other by a couple in their seventies, themselves downsizing. If you hold this view what do you visualise?

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 😂

@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.

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.

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.

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 .

Just myob.

Aibu wouldn't exist then! 🤣🤣

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.

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?

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!

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.

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.

@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.

@gemstoneju I agree. My family, in their 90s, have rapidly deteriorated and are incapable and unsafe to live on their own. Now in a care home and between them costing £100,000 a year. It will use up every penny they have. 'The State' must be thanking their lucky stars that they owned their own home and must also have their metaphirical fingers crossed that they don't live for another 4 years and that 'they' have to take over the burden of costs (although, for all us tax payers, the 'they' is actually us).

For our part, we are glad that their financial position means they can have the best affordable care.

@Kazzyhoward

sorry - I goofed my @ on my last post.

so. For you. 🌻

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.

we are at this point now, tight labour market, pension age moving out despite no increase in healthy life expectancy, higher stealth taxes.
There are already more over 65s than under 15s & if it wasn't for migration our "natural" population would be declining.

Brava @LittleMissUnreasonable !

And also yes! To the poster who points out that smaller homes generally have smaller rooms. The only way I could get the living space size I wanted (and that I pay a lot for!) was to buy a big house.

We need smaller houses with bigger rooms.

As per previous posters this is ageist. Should younger people living in a 4 bed detached be made to move.
I think government incentives to do so would be great. For example a one time only grant to cover moving costs and no stamp duty on one downsized property etc. The cost of moving would put plenty of people off of downsizing.

Is anyone any the wiser as to OP’s thoughts on the matter? What a plop and drop merchant 😂

To downsize, we would have to spend £20-£40k MORE on a 2 bed bungalow that wasn’t a 1970’s wreck than our 3 bed semi. Then there would be conveyancing / moving costs on top.

A 1 bed flat in a nice location would also only be £20k less .

We are mid/late 50s. We are currently in a smallish 4 bed. As soon as youngest dd finishes school (15) we are going to buy a bigger house.
We have adult children and grandkids visit plus we now need an office each. Still years off retirement.
My sil and bil have recently moved in their late 60s/early 70s to a 5 bed town house. They need room for visitors plus enough space not to kill each other!

No

I obviously know it’s a dilemma but when I was young renting was the norm, few people owned their own property in the 50’s and 60’s.
I think buy to rent has caused some of the problems now, fewer properties for sale and snapped up by people building their portfolios 🙄

That’s quite common on mumsnet - the view that people is selfish if they buy a house with a couple of spare bedrooms when a family could be living there. They can fuck off. I’m not living in some miserable beds it just because I don’t have children.

This opinion is so horribly ageist!

Beyond a certain point (which varies from person to person) it's actually beneficial to remain in a house you've been in a long time; familiarity of house layout/ items in the home/ local area- less likely to get lost etc and a larger house - more easily accommodates downstairs living, keeping of support equipment, carers can support you more easily.

It's not older people's fault that we don't build suitable accomodation - more bungalows and more 3&4 bed homes.

Mumsnet is skewed towards parents, a vocal minority of whom think that having children is intrinsically meritorious and that someone who has reproduced gains some sort of moral priority over those who have not.