My concern for the Rotherham landlords and homeowners is the older members of the population in our town.
I recently wrote an article about the plight of those in their 20s who are often referred to by the press as ‘Generation Rent’. Attitudes to renting have certainly changed over the last twenty years and as my analysis suggested, this change is likely to be permanent.
In the article, whilst a minority of this Generation Rent feel trapped, the majority don’t – making renting a choice not a predicament.
The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) predicted that the private rental sector is likely to grow substantially by 1.8m households across the UK in the next 8 years, with demand for rental property unlikely to slow and newly formed households continuing to choose the rental market as opposed to buying.
However, my real concern for Rotherham homeowners and landlords, as I discussed a couple of months ago, is our mature members of our population. In that previous article, I stated that the current OAPs (65+ yrs in age) in Rotherham were sitting on £1.59bn of residential property.
However, I didn’t talk in depth about the ‘Baby Boomers’ in the 50-64 age bracket.
Baby Boomers: what are their properties are worth – and more importantly, how is this current state of affairs holding back the younger ‘Generation Rent’?
In Rotherham, there are 6,664 households whose owners are aged between 50 and 64yrs and about to pay their mortgage off. That property is worth, in today’s prices, £947.2m.
There are an additional 8,110 mortgage free Rotherham households, owned by Baby Boomers which is worth £1.15bn in today’s prices.
This means that, in total…
Rotherham Baby Boomers and Rotherham OAPs are sitting
on £3.64bn worth of Rotherham Property
These Rotherham Baby Boomers and OAPs have 25,626 Rotherham properties. Many of them feel trapped in their homes, and hence I have dubbed them ‘Generation Trapped’ in the title to this article.
Recently, the English Housing Survey stated 49% of the properties owned by the Generation Trapped are ‘under-occupied’ (under-occupied classed as having at least two bedrooms more than needed).
These houses could be better utilised by younger families, but research carried out by the Prudential suggest in Britain it’s estimated that only one in ten older people downsize. Compare this with the USA where one in five downsize.
The growing numbers of older homeowners who want to downsize their home are often put off by the difficulties of moving.
The United for all Ages charity suggested recently that people are put off by
- the lack of housing option
- the hassle and cost of moving
- having to declutter their possessions
- family reasons such as staying close to children and grandchildren.
Helping mature Rotherham homeowners to downsize at the right time will also enable younger Rotherham people to find the homes that they need.
This would mean that every generation wins, both young and old.
However, to ensure downsizing works across the country we need to provide more choices for these ‘last time buyers’.
Theresa May and Philip Hammond can do their part and consider stamp duty tax breaks for downsizers. Additionally, our local Council and the Planning Dept. should play their part, as should landlords and property investors to ensure Rotherham’s ‘Generation Trapped’ can find suitable property locally, close to friends, family and facilities.
If you need advice about downsizing I would be happy to help. Please get in touch with me.
Please follow me on Twitter or Facebook to hear about the latest goings on in the Rotherham property market. Let me know what you think of the blog and my thoughts about ‘Generation Trapped’
