I think the term “bedroom blockers” is very offensive. My husband and I are among the older homeowners who are holding on to their properties, as described in The Sunday Times article of March 31 — as are many of our friends.
It’s not as if we’re sitting there because we want to be paying more bills for the big house. It is much more complicated than that.
First, we want to have room for family members ― and specifically children ― to come and stay. With many parents working, grandparents (or great-aunts and uncles, in our case) play an increasing role in looking after young children, particularly in the school holidays, and it is important to have room to accommodate them.
I am 65 and my husband is 60. Our generation is doing far more baby-sitting and childcare for the younger generation. The idea of having up to six children staying at a time cooped up in a small cottage or bungalow with a small garden is hardly appealing ― the noise level would be unbearable ― while in our current four-bedroom property in west Wales with extensive gardens it is a pleasure to have them here.
Second, quite frankly, a lack of opportunity to downsize is due to lack of places to move to. If you’re an older downsizer, the ideal property is probably a bungalow. There are a lack of bungalows, unless you want to be in some sort of estate. People are simply not building enough nice bungalows suitable for downsizers.
And then there’s the cost of moving, which is a big consideration. By the time you’ve had to pay stamp duty on somewhere you’re buying, plus selling and moving costs, it’s a lot……
Multigenerational living, we feel, may in many cases be the solution to the problem of people not downsizing. It could also help the lack of stock of properties for growing families, and even help alleviate the social care crisis too.
On a broader level I think the house-selling process can be brutal and off-putting for some older people. I work as a property buying agent, which involves finding homes for people, http://www.westwalespropertyfinders.co.uk and a lot of older people ring me and say that they can’t face having lots of people coming round looking at their homes — a problem exacerbated by the fact that many people now seem to go and browse at houses as a sort of sport, with no intention of actually buying.
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