Financial watchdog tells the elderly to downsize to tackle housing shortage
 

Daily Fail story (sorry)

Re: Financial watchdog tells the elderly to downsize to tackle housing shortage
 

I personally have no issue with what is being said. It's not suggesting they are being forced to do anything, but the principle that you should consider living in a house appropriate to your needs is sound.

If we are to solve issues we current have with housing and society in the UK, then we have to be prepared to consider all options and actually talk about them.

Re: Financial watchdog tells the elderly to downsize to tackle housing shortage
 

that would make the problem worse given the shortages are in small properties, so old people moving to smaller properties is bad not good.

Re: Financial watchdog tells the elderly to downsize to tackle housing shortage
 

The comments section is pretty entertaining. Gross, massive overreactions ahoy. Alongside complaints about patronising and denigrating pensioners which are beyond comedy given the bidding wards politicians have to bribe them for their votes.

It's simple - either give them incentives such as zero stamp duty and fixed estate agent costs to downsize, or tear up the banal Town and Country Planning Act, ignore complaints from NIMBYs whose primary concern in a sad number of cases is their property price, and build.

That said I'm not entirely sure what impact providing incentives to downsize will have. The government, in co-operation with the market, will still work to ensure those homes are ridiculously overpriced relative to incomes as they fear the fallout from house prices dropping back to historical averages.

It's neither in the politicians' or the big house builders' interests to supply the right properties in the right places in the required quantities. Some in the public and press go absolutely insane at the merest perceived slight to retirees and start handing out accusations of pitting the generations against each other. A bit late to worry about that.

Re: Financial watchdog tells the elderly to downsize to tackle housing shortage
 

Maybe the longer term aim is to fill all those great big under-occupied houses with migrants...

If someone owns a large house and wants to remain in it on their own that's their right IMHO. If successive governments had wanted to do something meaningful to sort out the housing problem they've had plenty of time to do so but simply lacked the required will and/or foresight.

Re: Financial watchdog tells the elderly to downsize to tackle housing shortage
 

Not aware anyone disputed that.

Re: Financial watchdog tells the elderly to downsize to tackle housing shortage
 

Speaking as one who actually tried to do that a few years ago we found that we could get an offer for our house (4 bedrooms) really easy but then came the problem. Could we find a smaller property and nearer the town centre? Of course not. And its got even worse now.

Re: Financial watchdog tells the elderly to downsize to tackle housing shortage
 

That's the challenge we will have in around 10 years or so if we decide to downsize - we would want to stay in the same area, and it seems all the bungalows are being bought, knocked down, and a four or five bedroomed house being built on the land.

Re: Financial watchdog tells the elderly to downsize to tackle housing shortage
 

Interesting. Clearly there is demand even though said houses are over half a million a pop.

Re: Financial watchdog tells the elderly to downsize to tackle housing shortage
 

Obviously, the estate agents don't highlight that I live in the area.... :D

Re: Financial watchdog tells the elderly to downsize to tackle housing shortage
 

I should move there. I'll soon ensure it makes Beeston look like Kensington and Chelsea.

I am big on affordable housing after all. Never mind putting myself a couple of hundred grand in the negative equity hole :D

Re: Financial watchdog tells the elderly to downsize to tackle housing shortage
 

I have never looked on any of my houses (I have had 3, including this one) as an investment, just as a home - fortunately, having lived in this one for over 23 years, it has quadrupled in value (but so would any house we want to move to, which is why we have extended it three times...).

Re: Financial watchdog tells the elderly to downsize to tackle housing shortage
 

I think the shortage of houses for first time buyers is more to do with the buy to let crowd than it is the elderly in oversized homes.

Re: Financial watchdog tells the elderly to downsize to tackle housing shortage
 

Brought this issue up with a family member he is an accountant and works for a company who provides housing for vulnerable people.

Anyway he pointed out to me that one bed flat's or bungalows are less profitable than say 2 or 3 bed houses, because for 1 bed flats you have a kitchen, bathroom and living room allocated to each bedroom, whilst you can add a 2nd or 3rd bedroom as a house and still only the one living room, bathroom etc. The company he works for puts all single people in hostels or bedsits unless they single women with children who came from an abusive relationship, they tend to get given the very hard to get single bed flats/bungalows for the good of the child.

This is also a reason why councils have under occupancy issues, they had empty 2/3 bed properties and massive waiting lists of single people so allocated these properties but now those people got affected by the bedroom tax with nowhere to move them to.

Re: Financial watchdog tells the elderly to downsize to tackle housing shortage
 

It's as if the Financial Conduct Authority hasn't considered that pensioners have minds of their own and those that would like to downsize haven't thought about it already or even acted accordingly. I'm sure that there are old folk all over the country who, on reading the dictat, sat up and were amazed that they hadn't thought of that first! :dozey:

---------- Post added at 18:16 ---------- Previous post was at 18:13 ----------

A first time buyer can always get one over on a buy to let buyer because the btl buyer has to make a profit on the property and the margins are already fairly slim. A btl buyer is looking to get a property under value whereas a 'normal' buyer can bid a smidge more and secure the property from under the btl's nose.

Re: Financial watchdog tells the elderly to downsize to tackle housing shortage
 

Nail hit on head

Re: Financial watchdog tells the elderly to downsize to tackle housing shortage
 

All the small bungalows round here cost more than the sale of my 3 bedroom would fetch..

Re: Financial watchdog tells the elderly to downsize to tackle housing shortage
 

Hmm, not so sure about that. A lot of btl's are cash purchasers who are putting their money into property because interest rates on savings are dire and have been dire for 6+ years. The profit made only has to cover maintenance and provide a yield that beats the best available investment rate, both of which are easily achievable.

Property is an illiquid asset but it suits those with 'money to spare' as there is no urgency for immediate access. Sellers like cash buyers for obvious reasons and buyers like having a tangible asset when QE otherwise diminishes their pot.

Re: Financial watchdog tells the elderly to downsize to tackle housing shortage
 

I've seen new builds costing 50% more than comparable houses in their area more and more recently.

Crazy.

Re: Financial watchdog tells the elderly to downsize to tackle housing shortage
 

People can't downsize because smaller practical properties are not being built and many have been demolished to accommodate fewer but much more profitable housing. Our problem isn't so much people under occupying its successive governments of all colours basing our economy around stupid property prices and being too scared to implement a practical house building programming of any worth. I know a lot of people will be hurt by a rebalancing of property in the UK including most of my family but it's inevitable as the current situation isn't sustainable for much longer.

Re: Financial watchdog tells the elderly to downsize to tackle housing shortage
 

indeed, councils have even been trying to give cash incentives to builders to build 1 bed properties but the builders turned down the offers, thats how bad the situation is.

Re: Financial watchdog tells the elderly to downsize to tackle housing shortage
 

Maybe people need to migrate to Ireland, Spain, China and the like where there's an abundance of empty properties. :spin:

Re: Financial watchdog tells the elderly to downsize to tackle housing shortage
 

My folks live in the same 4 bed house I grew up in. They host "the family" at Christmas and other times as well as parties for friends and put up visitors. If they downsized they couldn't do this so why should they?

It's not simply a shortage of small properties but the high cost of up sizing. If people can't afford to move out of their current property they will stay, maybe extend (loft extensions are a good way to go where possible) but not vacate to a bigger property releasing theirs for others.

Re: Financial watchdog tells the elderly to downsize to tackle housing shortage
 

Do we have something like a catch 22 situation, if people cant afford to move then shouldn't prices fall?

Re: Financial watchdog tells the elderly to downsize to tackle housing shortage
 

We have 300,000 more people in the UK this year over last and several millions more over the last 15 years or so. It's not the only factor but I dare say that helps keep demand high and therefore prices.

Re: Financial watchdog tells the elderly to downsize to tackle housing shortage
 

Everyone is trapped in what they've got! I think though most people probably could move as long as they're moving between areas with different prices. I.E London to Glasgow could be fine, the other way not so much.

The problem is just finding them. People can't find the homes to move too.

The answer to this is surely a massive building program but there is a vested interest from the Government to keep prices level or slowly increasing. The Government would literally rather pay people a subsidy to ensure demand doesn't collapse than address the constrained supply and risk people seeing their home values fall.

Re: Financial watchdog tells the elderly to downsize to tackle housing shortage
 

Even without that many people moving there's enough demand from immigration, shrinking households, and first time buyers using taxpayer guarantees to more than account for the low level of supply.

Nothing a few hundred thousand council houses wouldn't fix but the odds of that? ;)

Re: Financial watchdog tells the elderly to downsize to tackle housing shortage
 

Used to be a time when the Tories and Labour used to compete to see who could build the most council houses, it can happen again if the politicians can be convinced it's in their best interests.

Re: Financial watchdog tells the elderly to downsize to tackle housing shortage
 

But homes always get built in the same places leading to more overcrowding, more over demand in that area, pressure on infrastructure.

Could spread the building out more, instead of (figures out of imagination) 1,000 new houses in one place, build 10 new houses in 100 smaller places. Spreads load, provide homes for "locals". Down side is these are spread out where jobs aren't but many towns are becoming more dormitory areas anyway with people working elsewhere and just sleeping in the houses.

And look at some of the builds, 5 bed houses with little or no garden.

Re: Financial watchdog tells the elderly to downsize to tackle housing shortage
 

and bingo.

Here is the true reason we no longer have en masse council housing been built.

It would trash the precious booming housing market.

Funny enough now the lib dems are back in the wilderness they have good policies again as if by magic.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-34330676

Selling off council and housing association properties has been extremely damaging.

Re: Financial watchdog tells the elderly to downsize to tackle housing shortage
 

Perhaps if we didn't have the most economically dominant capital in the entire first world, with public spending there several times other parts of the country, a good part of the South-East wouldn't be a giant dormitory for it and jobs would be more distributed throughout the country and with them demand for housing.

There is work in progress to sort this. HS-2 should ensure that everything as far as Leeds and Manchester joins the London commuter belt.

EDIT: Sass aside homes have to be built where jobs are. People jump up and down screaming when builders look at the green belt, despite it having doubled in size in the past 36 years, it actually doubled between 1979 and 1993 alone, which reduces options further. My own home city is doing its bit and is pretty much the big private sector economic success story outside of London as far as England goes, and we have the housing demand to match but are doing what we can to fulfil it. There are a number of local authorities in South-East England that should be ashamed of their housing policy, it being geared more towards protecting equity than housing people.

May I suggest that housing should go where the infrastructure is. There's tons of extremely drab land, some of it formerly industrial, very close to transport and other infrastructure inside the M25. Would seem to make sense to get that built, unless the CPRE are trying to say that tyre yards are now part of the 'lungs' of the nation.

Re: Financial watchdog tells the elderly to downsize to tackle housing shortage
 

HS2 doesnt benefit everywhere ingiition :( e.g. although its runs through Leicestershire we have been disallowed a station. Its one reason I am against HS2 as it benefits so few areas.

Re: Financial watchdog tells the elderly to downsize to tackle housing shortage
 

Because if it stopped in too many places, it wouldn't be HS.....

Re: Financial watchdog tells the elderly to downsize to tackle housing shortage
 

Where in Leicestershire would it stop? The main point of High Speed rail is to connect the hubs around the country and reduce the travel time between them rather than act as a commuter service. Too many stops undermines the point of the network, it's the same issue Eurostar face when adding a new station.

I think they need to be more aggressive in getting HS all the way to Scotland. That's when the real benefit of the network would be felt as the time between Glasgow/London would be drastically improved.

Re: Financial watchdog tells the elderly to downsize to tackle housing shortage
 

if you only have a few stops then it doesnt really solve much, instead of one super city aka london, we have 2 or 3 super cities instead. I understand why one train cannot stop everywhere but they could have alternate trains at alternate stops.

Really I need to move as my city is a dead zone for investment. But family has kept me here.