Friday 24 November 2017

Should the 3,493 home owning OAP’s of Falmouth be forced to downsize?


 
The above was a question posed to me on social media recently, after my article about our mature members of Falmouth 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 Falmouth home owning mature members of our society, ‘Generation Trapped’.

 
So, should we force OAP Falmouth homeowners to downsize?

 
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 related.

 
Looking at the statistics for Falmouth, of the 3,493 Homeowners who are 65 years and older, 1,941 of them described themselves in good or very good health; 1,117 home owning OAPs described themselves as in fair health and 435 in poor health.

 

12.45% of Falmouth home owning OAP’s are in poor health

 

But if you look at the figures for the whole of Cornwall Council (not just Falmouth), there are only 1,142 specific retirement homes that one could buy (if they were in fact for sale) and 2,174 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’ Falmouth 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 Falmouth population and specialist retirement properties for the ones who aren’t in such good health. We have pleaded for the umpteenth time we need to build more appropriate houses in Falmouth!!

 

The Government's Housing White Paper, published a few months 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 Falmouth is ... more houses and decent sized apartments need to be built in the Falmouth area, particularly 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 Falmouth property investor readers whilst this issue gets sorted in the coming decade(s)  – maybe seriously consider refurbishing older bungalows – people will pay handsomely for them – whether that it is for sale or rent? Just a thought..

Look after the older generation after all we will be there one day.......soon!


 
 

Notes

 
Numbers on OAP’s /Homeowner ship taken from the census statistics

 
Numbers on Number of Retirement Property from the Housing Care Trust – a charity that looks after the interests of the older generation. Latest set of figures 2015/16

 

 

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