A survey from a financial organisation suggests that nearly half of the UK public says they would support a government incentive to encourage older homeowners to downsize their properties to free up space for younger buyers.
The research comes after the recent Housing White Paper which says measures will be introduced at some point in the future that older people could be encouraged to downsize, with greater provision for purpose-built alternative accommodation for that sector.
Equifax says 46 per cent are in favour of these initiatives - but an almost-as-large 40 per cent are against. The younger generation, aged 18 to 24, were most in favour of the initiative, with 65 per cent saying they would support the scheme.
“This insight is particularly interesting when looking at reports which show that a typical ‘last time buyer’ lives in a four-bed house but wants a two-bed property, and that almost a third of older homeowners have considered downsizing in the last five years but only seven per cent actually did” says Lisa Hardstaff, credit information expert at Equifax.
The research also found that over two thirds of Brits (68 per cent) are either very or fairly concerned that the younger generation is finding it increasingly difficult to get into home ownership.
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There's a simpler solution rather than shuffling everybody round the market with some bizarre age-related stick-and-carrot system. Just build some more smaller houses.
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