Posts with tag: elderly homeowners

Just 186,000 Homes are Left for 2m Elderly Homeowners

Published On: March 27, 2017 at 8:47 am

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Just 186,000 Homes are Left for 2m Elderly Homeowners

Just 186,000 Homes are Left for 2m Elderly Homeowners

Last week, we reported that retired homeowners are cashing in on property wealth at the expense of struggling first time buyers. But there may be a very obvious reason for this – elderly homeowners have no smaller homes to move to.

In its Right-Size Report, Inspired Villages found that Britain’s elderly homeowners are not moving from their family homes because there’s a severe lack of variety and quantity of retirement housing stock.

The research found that, in total, there are around 720,000 homes across various retirement housing types in England and Wales – enough to house just 7% of the nation’s elderly homeowners.

The Right-Size Report, which maps the supply and demand of Britain’s retirement housing, also found that 1.8m elderly homeowners who would normally leave their family homes can’t because there is nowhere suitable for them to move to.

If you are looking to move, however, Portsmouth is the best place to consider, as it has the most retirement housing units for ownership.

Hyndburn and Caerphilly are the worst, with the fewest number of units available.

A quarter (25%) of people say they would like to invest in a retirement property, despite there being only enough units for 2.7% to do so.

And housing supply is definitely the problem – since 2000, while the older population has grown, as few as 5,500 retirement housing units per year have been built on average.

Using this data, Inspired Villages mapped the supply and demand of Britain’s retirement housing, considering what it could be like in 20 years’ time as a result of the country’s rapidly ageing population.

While it certainly appears that Britain’s elderly homeowners would like to move into smaller properties to free up homes for younger first time buyers, it doesn’t look like a likely solution until the country’s housing stock rapidly increases.

Psychological barrier for old people moving home

Published On: October 8, 2015 at 9:15 am

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There is a psychological barrier stopping older people from downsizing their existing properties. That is the view of Housing Minister Brandon Lewis, who has suggested he would like property companies to produce more attractive bungalows to encourage pensioners to move from larger homes.

Positivity

Speaking at a fringe meeting, Lewis said, ‘we need to find the product that makes my parents, my inlaws find a property that they want to move to. It has got to be a positive thing.’

The number of households is on course to increase by 2.2milion by the year 2021. Of these, 1.2million, or 54%, will be households with owners aged 65 or over.

Most recent figures suggest that only 2% of homes in England are bungalows. Mr Lewis added, ‘we need to see more bungalows being built that people want to move to. It is around creating a product that older people find attractive enough that they positively want to move to because there is a psychological barrier to get over.’[1]

Psychological barrier for old people moving home

Psychological barrier for old people moving home

Life decisions

‘If you have got to a point in your life where you have got your dream home, then you get to the point where you decide it is time to move from that, it is a decision you are making about where you are in your life,’ Mr Lewis continued. ‘That is a really big psychological barrier and we have not cracked that yet in this country. There are other countries where they do have this product,’ he added.[1]

Number 10 is looking to increase pressure on elderly people who live in large accommodation with spare rooms, after their children have moved on. Just last year, a Liberal Democrat minister stated that more than half of over 55-year olds had property with spare rooms.

In 2011, research showed that 25million bedrooms in England were empty, mostly due to the fact that elderly couples do not move on to small properties.

[1] http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/11915572/Psychological-barriers-stop-old-people-from-downsizing-says-housing-minister.html

 

 

 

Support needed for elderly people downsizing

Published On: September 25, 2015 at 11:11 am

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A new investigation has called on local authorities and the property industry to come together to provide more support to elderly people looking to downsize to a smaller property.

The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors believes that will help to cut-down on the emotional distress of pensioners moving home in later years.

Visits

RICS suggested that councils work more closely together to arrange, ‘accompanied visits,’ to suitable properties to, ‘create a more positive experience.’[1]

In addition, the company thinks that the Government should pay for a new fund that covers pensioners’ moving costs, in order to encourage them to move home.

Data from the report shows that pressure is growing on pensioners to move from their large homes and into smaller flats or bungalows. It suggests that a third of over 55 year olds considered moving in the last five years, but only 7% have actually moved property.[1]

Community

The report stated, ‘knowing ones neighbours and feeling a sense of community is also an important factor in deciding to move homes for some older people. RICS recommends that local authorities and industry work together to provide accompanied visits to suitable properties to mitigate emotional distress and create and more positive experience.’[1]

One of the authors of the report, Jeremy Blackburn, told The Telegraph newspaper, ‘one of the things we heard was about the number of pensioners living in under occupied property, who might be asset rich terms of the property itself but are actually quite poor overall in terms of their savings.’[1]

While reluctant to provide a more accurate figure for how much elderly people would be offered to assist with moving costs, Blackburn said it would be, ‘more in the hundreds than in the thousands.’[1]

‘I think for many older people, they want to downsize and it’s really hard to do it, so anything that makes it easier must be a good thing,’ he continued. ‘There’s a lot of hysteria about forcing people to downsize but this is just ridiculous, because nobody is forcing anyone to do anything. It’s just helping people who want to do something already.’[1]

Support needed for elderly people downsizing

Support needed for elderly people downsizing

Exciting

Lord Best, chair of the All Parliamentary Group stated, ‘we want to make it easier to move all round, that’s the essence. Looking for a new home should be exciting and fun. We don’t want people to feel as though they are being forced out of their homes, we want downsizing to be a positive experience.’[1]

‘As people get older, by in large they don’t want to move very far where they live already, the challenge in many areas is that there just isn’t good quality housing available so that has to be looked at as well,’ added Lord Newby.[1]

[1] http://www.telegraph.co.uk/active/11885825/Elderly-people-should-be-given-emotional-support-to-encourage-them-to-downsize.html

 

 

Retired homeowners see wealth increase

Published On: June 24, 2015 at 4:52 pm

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Elderly homeowners in Britain have seen their property wealth rise by a staggering £12.5bn during the past three months, according to new research.

Analysis from the retirement pensioner property index from over 55’s financial specialist Key Retirement said that owning a property has made the typical pensioner almost £900 per month during the period.[1]

Wealth

This means that pensioners who own their own home have gained around £2,680 each from their homes during the past three months. As a result, overall pensioner property wealth has hit a new high.

During the past five years, Key Retirement suggest that the housing wealth of the over 65’s has risen by 12%, or £93.85bn, which equates roughly to £20,000 for each homeowner. In addition, the report suggests that the rise in property prices will lead to swelling of the equity release market, which gives homeowners to release wealth from their houses.[1]

Regional gains

Retired property owners in the capital were the biggest gainers, according to the research. Figures suggest that they have managed to achieve gains of £16,250 during the past three months. Additionally, the figures show that around a fifth of all pensioner property is to be located in London, with a total wealth of £173,683.[1]

Homeowners in Scotland were found to be £8,650 better off, with pensioners in Yorkshire and Humberside seeing an increased wealth of £4,063.[1]

However, pensioner property owners in Wales saw a fall in their housing wealth, with an average loss of £2,230. Falls were also recorded in the North West and in the West Midlands.[1]

Retired homeowners see wealth increase

Retired homeowners see wealth increase

Assets

‘Retired home owners have huge assets in their houses with total property wealth hitting another all-time high of £873 billion highlighting the growing importance of housing for retirement planning,’ noted Dean Mirfin, technical director at Key Retirement. ‘No matter what happens in the property market home owners will always have a major asset which should be considered as part of retirement planning. Innovation in the equity release market and the launch of pension freedoms are opening up more ways for homeowners to use their property wealth,’ he added.[1]

Concluding, Mr Mirfin said, ‘retired home owners, and those approaching retirement, should take advice on how their property wealth can generate additional capital and/or income. Advisers and lenders need to focus on a holistic approach to retirement planning which ensures that property wealth is considered alongside pension savings and other investments.’[1]

[1] http://www.propertywire.com/news/europe/uk-retired-property-owners-2015062410664.html