This
was a question posed to me on social media a few weeks ago, after my article
about our mature members of Huddersfield society and the fact many retirees
feel trapped in their homes. 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 Huddersfield home owning mature members
of our society, ‘Generation Trapped’).
So, should we force OAP Huddersfield homeowners
to downsize?
Well
in the original 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 Huddersfield, of the 18,568 Homeowners who are 65 years
and older, whilst 9,518 of them described themselves in good or very good
health, a sizeable 6,490 home owning OAPs described themselves as in fair
health and 2,560 in bad or very bad health.
13.79%
of Huddersfield home owning OAP’s are in poor health
But
if you look at the figures for the whole of Kirklees Metropolitan Borough
Council (not just Huddersfield), there are only 61 specialist retirement homes that
one could buy (if they were in fact for sale) and 1,716 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’ Huddersfield 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 Huddersfield
population and specialist retirement properties for the ones who aren’t in such
good health ... we need to build more appropriate houses in Huddersfield.
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
offered 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 Huddersfield is ... more houses and apartments need to be built in
the Huddersfield area, especially more specialist retirement properties and
bungalows. The Government had a golden opportunity with the White Paper – and
were sadly found lacking.
And a message to my Huddersfield
property investor readers whilst this issue gets sorted in the coming decade(s)
– maybe seriously consider doing up
older bungalows – people will pay handsomely for them – be they for sale or
even rent? Just a thought!
For more thoughts on the Huddersfield Property market –
please visit the Huddersfield Property Blog https://huddersfieldproperty.blogspot.co.uk/
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