This
was a question posed to me a few weeks ago, after reading one of my articles.
After working hard for many years and buying a home for themselves and their
family, the children have subsequently flown the nest and now they are left to
rattle round in a big house. Many feel trapped in their big homes (hence I
dubbed these Warminster home owning mature members of our society, ‘Generation
Trapped’).
So,
should we force OAP Warminster homeowners to downsize?
Well
in a previous article, I suggested that we as a society should encourage,
through building, tax breaks and social acceptance that it’s a good thing to
downsize. But should the Government force OAP’s?
Well,
one of the biggest reasons OAP’s move home is health (or lack of it).
Looking
at the statistics for Warminster, of the 2,808 homeowners who are 65 years and
older, whilst 1,661 of them described themselves in good or very good health, a
sizeable 894 home owning OAPs described themselves as in fair health and 253 in
bad or very bad health.
9.01%
of Warminster home owning OAP’s are in poor health
But
if you look at the figures for the whole of Wiltshire Council (not just Warminster), there are only 2,482
specialist retirement homes that one could buy (if they were in fact for sale)
and 3,259 homes available to rent from the Council and other specialist
providers (again- you would be waiting for dead man’s shoes to get your foot in
the door) and many older homeowners wouldn’t feel comfortable with the idea of
renting a retirement property after enjoying the security of owning their own
home for most of their adult lives.
My
intuition tells me the majority ‘would be’ Warminster downsizers could
certainly afford to move but are staying put in bigger family homes because
they can't find a suitable smaller property. The fact is there simply
aren’t enough bungalows for the healthy older members of the Warminster
population, and specialist retirement properties for the ones who aren’t in
such good health ... so, we
need to build more appropriate houses in Warminster.
The Government's Housing
White Paper, published a few weeks ago, could have solved so many problems with
the UK housing market, including the issue of homing our aging population.
Instead, it ended up feeling annoyingly ambiguous. Forcing our
older generation to move with such measures as a punitive taxation (say a tax
on wasted bedrooms for people who are retired) would be the wrong thing to do.
Instead of the stick – maybe the Government could use the carrot tactics and
offer tax breaks for downsizers. Who knows – but something has to happen?
..
and come to think about it, isn’t the word ‘downsize’ such an awful word? I prefer to use the word ‘decent-size’ instead
of ‘down-size’- as the other phrase feels like they are lowering themselves, as
though they are having to downgrade themselves in their retirement (and let’s
be frank – no one likes to be downgraded).
The simple fact is we are
living longer as a population and constantly growing with increased birth rates
and immigration. So, what I would say to all the homeowners and property owning
public of Warminster is ... more houses and apartments need to be built in the Warminster
area. But particular attention needs to be given to providing decent sized accommodation
for the older generation, especially more bungalows. The Government had a
golden opportunity with the White Paper – and were sadly found lacking.
And a message to my Warminster
property investor readers whilst this issue gets sorted in the coming decade(s)
– maybe seriously consider adding bungalows
to your portfolio – people will pay handsomely for them – be they for sale or
even rent.
