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?

We’re retired, living in a 3 bed semi, have a dog and I’m damned if anyone’s going to make me feel guilty for having a small bedroom as a craft room and a spare room for the adult DCs and DGCs to use when they visit.
If I were to move to a coastal area I would probably be accused of depriving local youngsters of buying a home so definitely can’t win.
Neither of the DCs live anywhere near us and I certainly couldn’t afford to move nearer to either of them.

I think if you're in social housing, then people should downsize when they don't need the space. I've visited people who had 4 bed council houses where they never used any of the upstairs rooms because they couldn't manage stairs, and still regularly declined any suggestion of swapping to a smaller, more accessible property. And ofc there are families with kids crying out for those properties on the housing list.

The people demanding that people downsize and sell their homes are the same people that are against the bedroom tax for people in council and HA houses. They are also against making people do home swops and down sizing and maybe having to move areas.

We'd like to downsize (currently five bedrooms, three bathrooms plus huge cloakroom) three receptions. But we don't want a cramped flat. Three bedrooms, two bathrooms and either two receptions or one huge one or one plus decent conservatory. And detached. It's single people living in under-occupied places that need to think too, if we are going to. My brother is single and lives in a three bedroom house. And split families where children are only there EOW. Stop picking on those of us who couldn't help when we were born.

I'd like to see incentives for downsizers. Not sure what that would look like though.
I do also think that people with empty bedrooms should be banned from opposing new houses. And also much stricter limits on tax payer funded care for people whose situations could be improved by moving into more suitable housing.

@OMGitsnotgood yes we (myself and my sister) are very much hoping that won’t happen. My sister already does a lot of care for them at home.
I would like to say to those who seem to think I am just lying back living a life of leisure waiting for my parents to die - I AM NOT.
I worked hard for 2 decades at minimum wage. I now care for my daughter who is autistic.
It’s not the path I planned. I would love to actually own my own house but life didn’t happen like that.

I'm not adverse to incentives for first time buyers but equally it could help if there were government incentives for retired people to downsize and free up properties for families.
Say, no stamp duty for >2 bed properties purchased by retirees when downsizing from more bedrooms. It's true that not everyone has huge equity to facilitate downsizing but have thought about doing it.
The issue with building bungalows is they take up more land having a larger ground floor footprint.

I also think there's a problem with families being more spread out as dc can't often afford to stay local & that impacts qol as an older person ages particularly if they get ill.

Exactly. It’s like this where I live. Families move into the bungalows and extend up and out, so now there’s no true bungalows for older people to buy.

@askmenow my in-laws home was approx. 40k & is now close to 2m, should they really be incentivised to downsize?

@watersprites I don’t understand what you meant by having a defeated attitude?

I doubt a cash strapped family could buy our house as it needs too much doing to it and would probably be difficult to get a mortgage on

In my area, a two bed bungalow will go for the same price or sometimes more than a 3 bed detached. It's supply and demand.

There simply aren't the houses available for elderly people to move into. Bungalows go for so much because there isn't enough of them.

The bungalows near me are super ££££, many close to 1m. I don't know any young people buying them to convert. I've only seen this in areas where bungalows are cheap.

@watersprites and being “productive “? I don’t know what you meant.

100% this - my MiL lives in London (where we could def not afford to buy).

I remember discussing with her a few years ago if she might want to think about moving nearer to us so I could pop in every day if she ever needed to. She was so angry at the idea I never raised it again - and now she is getting more frail and we're 2 hours away. I respect her choice but I can only do what I can do.

@Needmorelego where did I talk about a defeated attitude?

In my option is used more in council housing when said old person doesn't own the lovely 4 bed house with a garden and there are families and young children being split up and moved from hotel to hotel all around the country.
if you own your house it's yours.

A couple of years ago when my dad was 89, carpet fitters came to put down a new carpet in his house. They made it absolutely clear that his house was 'a family house' and he should move into a housing association flat so 'a family' could have the house.

This is not a council/housing association property. Not even privately rented. My dad built his own house in 1959. He had a mortgage to do that, which was paid off by the 1970s. He's been there now for 63 years. It's his home and he'll stay there as long as he can.

People say such things out of envy. They are unreasonable and have bad manners. My dad is determined that if he ever buys another carpet, it won't be from them!

People probably think this about my mum who is in her 70s who lives in a 4 bedroom detached house. The amount of bedrooms doesn't mean a huge amount - she actually "downsized" from a bigger more expensive 3 bed in a more desired location. Most of the people who looked at her previous house were builders and investors, the families couldn't afford it and/or discounted it for other reasons. The person who ended up buying it was a similar age to her.

The irony is that lots of young families did look at the house she bought but no one else put in an offer because the garden was too small. She bought the house off a divorcing couple who had several kids and she paid the asking price which helped each parent buy a suitable property.

She uses every single room. My kids go round there regularly and play in the bedrooms, we sometimes stay over. She is still working and uses another room for that.

Where does it end? I live in a row of 3 bed semis. My neighbours never had children, should they be made to downsize too? Or perhaps people without children should live in one bedroom flats like a pp said. After all, people without dc don't need gardens even if gardening is their hobby. 🙄

productive as in conducive for society.

Who is going to be able to afford all of these larger houses that the elderly are living in? My step dad lives in a lovely 4/5 bed house, big garden, huge kitchen, double garage, several reception rooms, at a conservative estimate, even in today's climate, it's worth £850,000. I would really struggle to afford that and my partner and I have a really good combined income.

Only way that I could afford that sort of house is if I have an inheritance!

@Needmorelego do you not see an issue where people can't get on the ladder unless they inherit?

It’s a good idea, the government could help with zero moving costs, stamp duty, solicitors etc, but there needs to be good houses or bungalows with a good size garden ( manageable) off street parking etc, unfortunately this will not happen because we are not building enough houses for the existing populations growth and the vast numbers that are still coming here, that need somewhere to live

Same, unless I couldn't manage the stairs or something. Even then I think I'd get a stairlift. I've put heart and soul into this house for 25 years. I like the location. I love my garden. Detached house and I don't ever want to live in a flat or a semi. All my furniture etc is to accommodate the size of home I have, and it wouldn't fit in a smaller one.