Are over-65s to blame for the housing crisis? Telegraph readers have their say
Older homeowners have been accused are contributing to the housing crisis by staying put in large properties, according to a major study.
The report by Cass Business School and the Centre for the Study of Financial Innovation, recommended that stamp duty be cut for over-65s to encourage them to downsize.
However, the lack of age-appropriate housing for older buyers to move into may also be a factor in retirees ‘clogging up the property market’ and staying in homes with unused bedrooms.
Telegraph readers had plenty to say about the findings of the study.
They also shared their suggestions as to why older buyers remain in larger properties, including the impact of stamp duty, wanting to keep a second bedroom for their children and grandchildren to visit, and the government’s failure to build enough affordable homes for first-time buyers.
We've compiled a selection of the best reader comments on whether older homeowners are contributing to the housing crisis. Join the conversation in the comments section at the bottom of this article.
'I'd rather stay put than pay a fortune in stamp duty'
@William Smith
"I'm 60, the birds have flown the nest and we are looking to downsize, but the costs involved mean its not really viable to do so.
"We love our family home and I'd rather stay put than pay out another fortune in stamp duty just to lose a bedroom."
'It is not easy to pick up sticks and relocate'
@Alan Cole
"A house becomes a home after many years of investment in order to suit the requirements of the owners.
"It is not easy to just pick up sticks and relocate, and certainly not because one is made to feel guilty about staying in the home you love."
'Homeowners are doing what they're legally entitled to do'
@John Blackley
"Older homeowners are not 'contributing to the housing crisis'. I understand that they're not doing what those in the housing business want them to do, but that's not the same thing.
"Homeowners of every age are doing what they're legally entitled to do – live in a property they own, a property of the size of their choosing, in a place of their choosing for as long as they choose.
"Stop trying to manufacture blame where none exists."
'No parent can be sure their child won't reclaim their childhood bedroom'
@M McLean
"It used to be that children would leave home, and that would be it. They would either get married or get a job in a distant town and a place of their own, and they would never live with their parents again.
"Nowadays, it is less often like that. Children go to university, then they come back for vacations. Then they might do a year travelling after university. Then they might get a six month internship and a flat in London. Then they might move in with a partner.
"Even marriage is not the clear cutting of the umbilical cord it once was. So many marriages fail these days that no parent can be sure their child will not come to reclaim the childhood bedroom.
"It makes sense to keep the family home in the family."
'The government has failed to build enough affordable homes'
@John Bentley
"Many old people who have seen their families move on still like to keep a spare bedroom for visiting friends or grandchildren.
"The problem is as usual the failure of successive governments to build enough affordable homes for the young."
'The lack of age-appropriate housing is a more relevant issue'
@David Simmons
"Stamp duty isn't stopping older people from moving, they just don't want to leave their homes as they hold so many memories.
"The lack of age-appropriate housing is a more relevant issue if you want to tempt or persuade them to move."
'Stamp duty should be cut for all'
@Nick Riley
"Stamp duty should be cut for all, not just those over-65. It adds unnecessarily to the already high cost of a house in Britain."
'People are living where they want to'
@Peter Simpson
"This is not a dysfunctional market. It is a market working very well. People are living where they want to.
"I suppose giving incentives to move might be okay but it will be bound to have unpredictable consequences and it will distort the market. A distorted market is generally a dysfunctional market."
'It would take a nuclear explosion to separate us from our home'
@M Parnell
"Having lived in our current four-bed home for over 20 years and it being the home our children remember as where they grew up, we have a solid family attachment.
"Our sincere hope is that our children, when married, will bring their own children here to stay and remember it all their lives.
"It would take a nuclear explosion to separate us from this house, and there are so many happy memories in every brick, tile, flower and blade of grass. It's ours. We paid for it. It isn't going to be sold until our deaths when the keys are handed to our children, and then they can decide what to do with it.
"In the meantime, you can look and like it but you can't have it. We won't sell."
'Our house is a dream to us and we will enjoy living in it'
@Jane Goldsmith
"We bought a fairly big house near a stretch of beach, not a particularly popular one. We are at the cheaper end of the market in the area. It took three years to do it up, and we could do more but won't. No young person I know could possibly have done what we have done, and neither would we have been able to until our later years.
"It is a dream to us and we will enjoy living in it after all the hard work. Whether we move to somewhere smaller at some point, or keep it to leave to our children (there is nowhere else to put your money at the moment), or to pay care home fees, or whatever, is absolutely no one's business except ours.
"My parents and we ourselves worked our butts off. I will not have greedy envious people telling me how I can or cannot live and in what kind of property."
'The properties don't even need to be that large'
@Joe Soap
"In America they have active gated communities for over-55s. There people can enjoy a safe, full retirement with many friendships being made and plenty to do. The properties don't even need to be that large .
"I spend the winter in one of these parks and whilst we don't have the climate over here, developers could provide a market for which there would be a demand.
"In Britain an over-55 community is either a millionaires' retreat or a nursing home for over-80s."
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