Menopause Matters Forum
General Discussion => This 'n' That => Topic started by: CLKD on October 15, 2015, 03:08:11 PM
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Robert Peston is suggesting that OAPs who live in large properties should sell them to enable younger people with families to move in to them.
Discuss ;D
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Not a bad idea in fact we have a couple of friends that have swapped with their kids who needed more room. It was a sale though. They have moved into flats and the son/daughter have got the family home.
It also frees up equity for old age. Much better idea than the equity release schemes.
Why rattle around in a big half empty house. We drastically down sized five years ago and I love my house and garden. It's manageable.
Mind you, you would never get me into a flat in a million years. Lived in two and had awful neighbours. I like my own space.
Honeybun
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It costs around £25,000 to move down here. That's without the cost of the property. Also, couples can't afford the deposit on a 2 bed down here so certainly couldn't afford a deposit and mortgage on anything larger. This was a family home when first built in t he 1960s then they divorced and had to sell. We moved in without children and have filled it. With stuff, friends, family, more stuff ::).
Having worked hard, paid off the mortgage and now retired, it's part of our Pension/Care home fees ;). Apparently RP is moving to ITV on a salary of £400,000 so his children are unlikely to ever be homeless ::)
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What on earth does £25,000 get you :o
We have moved a good few times and although expensive nothing as costly as that.
Trouble is if a couple have most of their money tied up in a house what happens if one needs care years before the other. If you have sold a larger property then you have the money available to pay immediately. Also the partner left in the house would not have to face selling up alone.
I think it has a lot of advantages but that's maybe because we have done it.
Honeybun
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Stamp duty. Solicitor's fees. Estate Agents' fees. Physical moving i.e. booking a vehicle/s. Soon adds up! Extra if one needs to 'go' into storage between properties ::). The move cost us £9,000 in 1983.
A couple not far away were going to move to a bungalow 10 miles from where they have raised their 3 children in a 4 bedroom house. They had hosted good parties, entertained children from when their own were small, done 2 house swaps ::), had her Mum there for 3 months …… so there are lots of memories there.
On investigation they found that the price of bungalow they liked, plus the above costs, were way over the price that their house had been valued at. So, now in their late 70s, they are staying put. Children have jobs World wide so them moving back isn't an option.
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Here in Northern Ireland it costs around £10000 to move. We are certainly considering moving from a 5 bed roomed house to a bungalow at some stage however the thought of it is terrifying. I would certainly like to feel less menopausal first...
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There are a few things that worry me about the sweeping statement that OAPs should move out of their large houses:
Whilst it sounds like a sensible and practical idea to downsize, there does need to be somewhere those OAPs would wish to move to. Many may wish to stay in the community they know and love and this is seldom possible. There is a shortage of affordable smaller homes for young couples who wish to get on the property ladder in the first place, so the squeeze comes from both ends.
I think the trauma of moving house can be very difficult for many - I have moved house quite a few times and it doesn't get any easier or cheaper. The government needs to bring in incentives to encourage some appropriate planning to accommodate the growing number of OAPs and how to support them in the community. Maybe some tax incentives might encourage more people to move to appropriate properties for their needs as they get older.
We encouraged my lovely mother-in-law to buy a retirement flat near us and she was reasonably happy there but the overheads were quite high and the value of the property had actually dropped considerably when we had to sell it to help pay for her nursing home.
It is crazy to rattle around in a large house if you could downsize to something more practical but there does need to be some planning to make this viable. DG x
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Good grief ladies, you need to live in Scotland. Estate agent fees, stamp duty and solicitor fees....which I negotiated before hand, as its amazing what you can get if you ask, is nowhere near the £25,000 that CLKD quoted. I just can't see that at all.
We downsized to an area we like. I think the fear of it is far worse than the reality. There are always smaller houses available. Why would two people choose to stay in a house for five or six. You still need to heat it and maintain it.
Does anyone have plans in place if a partner needs care later in life and all the money is tied up in a house.
Honeybun
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The trouble is then there is no choice of care home.....first available place with no choice.
Even now we couldn't cope with the size of garden we had in one of our houses. Now we have everything set for easier living.
Honeybun
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I'm with HB on this - but then I live in Scotland too. I have moved umpteen times, latterly with a well known removal firm doing all the packing and had at least 3 moves when furniture was in storage for months. I do not find it that stressful if you are well organised. Yes, I've had times when the house was not ready on time (twice) and the furniture van broke down (once) but got there in the end. The bigger your house the more junk (sorry - prized possessions) you have and the bigger the problem is when you are at a time in your life that you cannot mentally or physically deal with it. I have two bedrooms and an office so the house I am in now is not too big for me but the garden is getting to be that way. Not sure if I will move in the future or just get someone in to help but it is something I have considered already.
Bramble
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If someone in England is assessed as needing 'care' then Social Services has a list of funded 'homes'. There are some 'homes' that care for those on social as well as those that can self-fund. [when Dad required care he was upstairs as he was paying ::)]. There are also private 'homes' for self funders. There are several levels of 'care' in England - if 1 has over a certain amount of money in the Bank then 1 has to self fund. Then one has to decide if one wants a retirement-type 'home' or full nursing care. The latter should be funded by the State as 'point of service' i.e. the same as if 1 were in Hospital but then one has to pay B&B costs. Which can add up to £25+thousand a year.
One cannot be turned out if a husband/wife needs full nursing care but the Home can be taken later in order to pay back fees ::) which is what ours if for: part of our Penison/care funding. we have no-one else to pay for us.
Why should I sell my home that we have paid towards. I couldn't afford to move into our village now ::) ……..
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You don't have to if you don't want to CLKD.
Worth considering the future though.
Whether you can maintain the house and garden, whether you can manage the stairs or the stairs are suitable for a stair lift. If you can convert a downstairs room into a bedroom.
It's something we all have to think about at some point because how fit we are today does not mean we will be the same in 10 or 15 years.
Honeybun
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Hasn't the stamp duty changed recently? Before then, down here, we were advised that to sell a 400k house and move to a slightly smaller one (400k here gets you a modest three bedroom detached by the way in case you think I have a mansion!) you need to put aside between 20 to 25k to cover all costs. This did include stamp duty though.
Taz x
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Property up here is far less expensive. £250,000 gets you a big house with a sea view. Moving costs are so much less. And I'm in a really nice part of the country.
Even renting up here is so much cheaper.
We have a lot of English people around us who sold during the property boom and freed up a lot of cash doing so.
Honeyb
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Earlier this year, we put our 4 bedroomed house up for sale (we are in East Anglia) as our daughter had moved out & the large garden needs a lot of maintenance (we have lived here 17 years). Our adult son is autistic so will be living with us for the foreseable future. I had the jitters as I was in the early stages of recovering from a breakdown & felt terrified of moving to a new neighbourhood where I wouldn't know anybody. I think the fear of change puts some people off as we are fortunate to have lovely neighbours & leaving them will be a wrench. However, the cost of moving would have been £12,000 & we actually couldn't find a smaller house (3 bedroomed with an average garden) that didn't need loads of work doing to it, within our budget! The house prices in our area leapt by ridiculous proportions during the time we were looking so that we would have had to take out a small mortgage to buy a smaller property than our own. We were outbid no less than four times on properties we liked (and we were offering OVER the asking price). One house we really liked (and lost out on) was back on the market one month later & the estate agents had hiked the price up by £25,000 - and this was for a three bedroomed end terraced house (still in the same town but in a different area)! Location is everything, it seems. In the end, we had to pull out which left me wracked with guilt but our buyer, who moved into a rented property, still wants our house & is prepared to wait until we look again, probably in early Spring. I can understand fully why some people are reluctant to downsize when the moving costs are so high & greedy estate agents hike up the prices by ridiculous amounts. Our mortgage was paid up 2 years ago - we don't want to take out another one at this stage in our lives! X
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This topic came up in our house recently. Hubby suggested that we should downsize and buy 2 small houses instead of this one. Live in one and rent out the other. We already have one other house that we rent out and he fancies doing the same again.
I pointed out that I love this house as its so warm, very sunny, has a sheltered private garden just the right size, is bang in the middle of the village so very convenient and anyway how could he possibly manage without the garaging we have here? That shut him up!! ;D ;D
I can't bear cold, dark houses, I don't want a massive garden, I don't want to be out in the middle of nowhere and not have any facilities. There's no point living somewhere smaller if you're not happy is there?
we have 4 bedrooms here and there's me, hubby and daughter but often she's not around. However my elderly Mum comes every other weekend and my son pops home every couple of months so I do have to have beds for them.
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Heavens I had no idea it cost so much to move!!!!! We've lived in the same place for years and both in our 60's but haven't thought of moving yet I mean we're not old are we and still well and active, and I am still working part-time - well I suggested it (moving) but my husband says he would like to stay here for ever! We don't have a large house but the land is too much for us to manage really (only about a third of an acre) and I don't want to be hacking down brambles in my old age (I don't do that now but my husband does!). It would take two years to sort out all our stuff anyway - well mainly my husband's :(
Hurdity x
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We have got rid of stuff along the way.
I can't imagine this will be our last house....I get itchy feet after a while. Hasn't happened quite yet but we have only been in this house for five years.
My hubby has always wanted to build our own, well not him personally ;D. I always keep an eye out for a plot that would be suitable , so you never know.
Honeybun
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I used to load the loft with all sorts. My hubby said there was more up there than in the actual house. I mean who needs seven duvets...just in case. They were all old ones.
My previous house had no loft.....well it was a Victorian flat but was cavernous, so when we moved we got rid of loads of things and virtually started again. I sold so much as I had furnished with big furniture that would not suit a modern bungalow.
I still have no loft as my DD lives in the loft.....we did a conversion, so I still can't hoard.
My kids won't have that much to go through and if we do decide to move it will be so much easier than the past few times.
Honeybun
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So back to my point: is Robert Peston 'right' in hoping to get old people: he's 55 by the way >:(: to sell their large homes for others to move into?
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Yep. His problem I think is that he can see young people not getting onto the property ladder but that is the Government's fault when they encouraged and allowed people to buy their Council houses >:(. The Government of the Day is now suggesting that Housing Authorities offer their properties to current renters are below the market rate but what is the market rate? anything is only worth what someone pays on the day :bang: :bang: :bang: ……. and I'm selfish. In order to survive a baby cries otherwise it wouldn't get fed ::) we are born selfish.
But to suggest that people who have worked hard to pay for a roof over their heads: what should be addressed is selfish landlords who put up rents every 6 months which forces many tenants onto the streets :'(
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:thankyou: …….. :wub:
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How does allowing people to buy council houses not allow others onto the property market. It enables people not to pay empty money....ie...rent.
They stay for a few years, then sell up, freeing up smaller properties.
If you have to blame anyone blame the mortgage lenders who irresponsibly lent vast amounts of money to people who were never going to be able to service that debt. Now the deposit for a first time buyer is huge.
If banks and building societies had lent properly then we would never have got into this situation.
When we first got a mortgage the rules were loosening up. It was three times the principal wage earners salary + 1 ....ie the wife.
Then it changed....drastically....four times + two.
I was working in new house sales at the time and knew the people I was selling to were going to have problems. Did the banks care....did they heck....until it all collapsed.
Now all first time buyers are paying dearly for banking malpractice.
It's very wrong.
Honeybun
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Not 'down here' Honeybun. Because Margaret Thatcher gave tenants the 'right to buy' there were no longer step-up houses for people to rent long-term or build savings for a mortgage in order to move on. We were raised in Council houses. Parents in Law stayed in Council accommodation for Life. My Dad rented for a few years, bought a plot of land, raised enough money to have a house built: therefore moving out, allowing another family to move in. Who stayed in the property for over 30 years.
Now that there is virtually no Council housing stock in England/Wales, people have no where *to* rent >:( - other than with private landlords who want Blood and Guts before people even get the keys. Sometimes deposits and other stealth taxes to be paid prior to moving in are too much for people to raise :'(.
The Government of the day keeps telling the public that we have to accept several thousand houses per area but if Council stock wasn't sold there would be property. Some of those people wanting Council houses will *never* be in a situation to buy their own anyway, they simply don't have the jobs/ability to do so. There are no longer jobs which equate to the wages required to save for a deposit. Some may be able to pay the rent each month but can't raise the extras …….
Robert P could begin by buying up all the Pubs that have gone out of business and stand empty - I know of 5 in this area alone and I don't get out much :-\ ::) ………
What is required is 1-bedroomed properties for young people/students to rent according to their means. Even if it means that each property is costed differently, dependant upon the income. But all across the countryside I see 3/4/5 bedroom houses being built …. mind U, the rooms are tiny :o not room enough to hang a tie!
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I would love to build my own house! Still a bit of a pipe dream though. I would have an en-suite with a bath and a larder in the kitchen and a utility room with space to tuck away the cat litter trays.
Bramble
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We had a thread about this too ;D
I would have separate loos - a loo, a urinal, a hand-wash basin. En-suite.
Separate shower room with hand-wash basin. One large bathroom so that I could lay and watch the sky ……
We have a long utility room - it was 2 rooms and a wall was knocked down. 17 feet x 9 feet. Chest freezer, upright fridge, ironing board up all the while; 2 airing 'horses': on the other wall, laundry and dishwasher. Would love room to put a line across the room …….. door opens on one wall, large window can be opened on the other so wind can blow through.
Heated, indoor swimming pool off the main bedroom - that's a bungalow then ;D