New warning of older sellers deterred by high cost and poor choice

There has been another warning that older home owners are reluctant to sell and free-up family housing because of the cost of moving and what some see as too limited a choice of alternative accommodation.

A report by My Home Move suggests 58 per cent of homeowners aged over 55 have no intention of downsizing, with many citing the absence of their preferred housing - bungalows or small detached houses - and others saying the stamp duty on a new purchase would be too high a price to pay.

Last week Estate Agent Today reported a HomeOwners’ Alliance claim that over the past two years alone over 500,000 owners aged 55-plus have had to ditch plans to move because of a lack of suitable housing.

The HOA said 19 per cent of owners aged over 55 had considered moving since 2014 but had not done so; almost a quarter of them cite a lack of suitable housing as the main reason why they had not done so. 

Now My Home Move’s analysis suggests there has been a lack of appropriate stock for older movers for over 12 months. 

Its own survey of 1,000 UK residents aged 55 and over discovered that almost 40 per cent says stamp duty as a disincentive. 

“We have seen stamp duty holidays for first-time buyers in the past, so there is no reason the government couldn’t extend a similar scheme to downsizers, to help free up the market and get transactions moving” claims My Home Move spokesman Doug Crawford.