Older home owners have been labelled as ‘Generation Stuck’.
Retirement homes builder McCarthy & Stone says that over-65s hold the key to solving the housing crisis which has turned younger people into Generation Rent.
But, it says in a new report, older people wanting to downsize find their options limited, and moving expensive.
McCarthy & Stone is calling for a Stamp Duty exemption for older people who downsize, or who buy a retirement home.
The firm’s report, in conjunction with YouGov, found that in a sample of 3,000 over-65-year olds, 35% would consider downsizing – equal to a total of 4.1m people.
If all 4.1m were to downsize, that could free up 2m bedrooms.
The YouGov survey also talked to younger people, and found that 60% believed that the UK needs more ‘later homes’, and not just starter homes.
A greater proportion of pensioners, 70%, agreed, saying there should be more focus on improving the range of housing options for older people.
Not all older people want to downsize to a retirement property, although 22% of the sample said they would consider this.
Scaled up, that equates to 2.6m people but only some 162,000 retirement properties have ever been built in the UK.
A number of pensioners surveyed, 38%, feel the Government prioritises first-time buyers over older people, with Stamp Duty relief and Help to Buy.
However, both generations understand the struggles facing young people in the housing market.
Some 70% of over-65s cite high house prices, as do 60% of under-30 year olds.
Clive Fenton, chief executive of McCarthy & Stone, said: “Millions of older people are looking for properties better suited to their needs, and young people are desperately trying to join the housing ladder.
“By providing more suitable housing, such as bungalows, retirement housing or other well-designed accommodation for later life, we can address a big part of the housing crisis.
“We absolutely understand the Government’s focus on helping young people join the housing ladder, but if they are really serious about solving the housing crisis they have to recognise that helping older people to downsize to free up under-occupied property has to be a significant part of the solution.”
Ha. McCarthy & Stone calling for stamp duty cuts, how about you build affordable properties. In the area I work, their retirement apartments are often more expensive than the houses people are selling buy these flats. They pitch the benefits of the “communal areas”, social occasions etc but no one ever uses them. They are so over priced, that when the owners pass on, they are practically unsellable. Why not try building something different, retirement bungalows or similar rather than yet another gods waiting room high rise.
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That’s obviously a rhetorical question, Arthur?
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Sort of and sort of not. We all know the answer to the question…profit, they make millions from theses retirement coffins. But it is also a question i would like an answer to, why isnt there more different types of accommodation for retired people? Bungalows are no longer built, what bungalows did exist the majority are now huge chalet bungalows or houses. If you are an elder retired person looking to downsize, you pretty much have 2 options, buy an overpriced, impossible to re-sell piece of rubbish, or stay in your own home which probably needs work doing to it.
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Absolutely 100% agree ArthurHouse02! Where has the ‘like’ button gone? … 🙂
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I’ll be back…
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Sounds like McCarthy and Stone wanting to increase their profits even further. The second hand value of such property is such that the move to such accommodation is a poor investment for anyone concerned about passing on an inheritance. Just scrap the stamp duty on any property below £1,000,000 to help the market move.
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I’ve been saying this for years. There are so many pensioners rattling around with no incentive to move as it just costs too much. I would scrap stamp duty for over 60s. My mother lives in a 6 bed house on her own as do my in-laws and several of their neighbours. Many of them would move to smaller (not necessarily retirement) properties if the financial hurdles were removed.
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The McCarthy & Stone flats in my area are an absolute joke when it comes to pricing, they cost the same as a 3 bedroom detached house. In one small town, there have been 600 new homes built in the last 3 years and not one bungalow. You can actually get more money for a ground floor flat now than a top floor with views.
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We have a lovely little retirement ‘village’ of bungalows near me, but it’s the only one I’ve come across in the area. It is basically just a little cul-de-sac of bungalows, with a small wardens office and all the gardens are communal, and maintained by a gardener. There is one of those pull-cord alarm systems, and (apparently) every day the head office calls each occupant to check that they are ok. If the person doesn’t answer and hasn’t informed them that they are away, then the warden will pop round to knock on the door to make sure that the person hasn’t fallen over etc.
I think that’s a great system. Each person/couple still has their own home, with nice well maintained gardens to sit in, they get regularly checked on and can be as social or private as they like. We need more of these, not the “God’s waiting room high rise” mentioned above!
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What a load of tosh! If they’re genuinely downsizing, the equity they have will more than take care of the costs. And,a few thousand in stamp duty should be more than offset by the reduced running costs of a smaller property. The issue as already so eloquently stated is the paucity of choice that a downsizer has,relative to the splendour which they have become accustomed to. I shudder at the thought of going into a McCarthy & Stone Granny Farm.
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If this is M&S’ way of “persuading” their potential customer base into moving to one of their stackable crematorium waiting rooms then I suggest they go back to basics and accept that they simply don’t offer what the majority of said customer base are looking for OR what motivates people to actually move in the first place (or, more importantly, what doesn’t).
Just saying.
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The “trick” with M & S sales (and probably other similar companies) is the PX offering. M & S will PX the buyer’s existing home, regardless of relative value, even to the extent of taking in a property costing more than the value of the apartment M & S are offering. Ther are some additional benefits such as allowing an overlap so that the buyer of their apartment can take up to 2 weeks to move across.
Given the likely age and possibly ill health of the buyer, it is hardly surprising that the PX offer is attractive, all nice and easy, with no hassle.
From M & S’s point of view, this enables them to exchange an overpriced apartment for a nice second hand home that is truly worth the value placed on it by surveyors/agents as part of the PX proccess.
I have seen this on many occasions in my area – brand new apartments are sold (px’ed in many, if not all) cases – the second hand apartments are close to impossible to shift subsequently even at around 50% of the brand new price.
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