Story for The Times: Upsize, downsize?

I’ve seen a number of people on the Help to Buy scheme looking to move as they approach or pass the 5-year point & interest becomes payable on what they borrowed from the government. Many of these are young families deciding that now would be the time to upsize. However many who maxed out and borrowed the full 20% through the scheme are finding that buying their way out of it is leaving them with capacity only to buy a comparable home, but with higher monthly outgoings! Mainly due to replacing their H2B loan with a capital repayment mortgage which has higher repayments - especially now, at much higher rates than when they started out - which of course applies to the main mortgage too. Many of these people are deciding to stick, and being held back from upsizing. This will then limit stock of modern housing for others to downsize into.

We've just helped a client who has been thinking about downsizing for a couple of years but finally made the leap due to the cost of their energy bills.

They've found a fantastic bungalow with solar panels that will drop their monthly energy bill from £450 to £80 per month.

They plan to use the saving to overpay on their mortgage and pay it off faster.

Over recent months we have noticed more purchasers (especially in the older age bracket) down sizing.

We recently had a purchaser in his mid 60’s who sold his 4 bedroom apartment in Marylebone for £5m and he was then able to buy a smaller but more modern 3 bedroom apartment in Fitzrovia for half the price at £2.55m.

By doing this he was able to free up some equity, half the hefty service charge costs (now 10k per year instead of £20k) and also massively reduce his energy bills.

We have a lot of clients that look at interest-only options with the intention to downsize in the future. It makes sense a lot of the time as they want a large house now whilst they have children, then change to a smaller house when the children have moved out. Or they look to relocate to a lower value property in the countryside when they are older and close to retirement.

We have a lot of clients that look at interest-only options with the intention to downsize in the future. It makes sense a lot of the time as they want a large house now whilst they have children, then change to a smaller house when the children have moved out. Or they look to relocate to a lower value property in the countryside when they are older and close to retirement.

"We are having a lot of conversations with our clients in their late 60s and early 70s about "Rightsizing". Sometimes it is about the finances, such as paying to heat and clean rooms that are no longer in use. Sometimes it is more practical, such as thinking that the stairs will be too hard to manage in the future. People are aware that they do not want to leave it too late to move but sometimes the emotional upheaval of leaving the family home is too much."

The clients I have spoken to about downsizing, whilst not a huge volume, all shared the same driving force behind their decision - ease. They weren't downsizing to generate cash sums, or reduce costs, in fact, a few purchased more expensive property. What they wanted was something more modern that didn't require so much maintenance, closer to amenities they may become more reliant on and easier access properties such as bungalows and ground floor apartments.

The main drivers for property sellers are still the "three D's": Death, Debt and Divorce. With an ageing population staying healtheir for longer, likely to have paid off their debts, and probably married for decades, there's no pressure on older borrowers to downsize and we're not seeign any signs of them doing so.