Frustrated sellers and savvy retirees are becoming ever more creative to seal the deal in today’s tricky market.
Does retirement mean stopping the daily grind, kicking back and taking it easy? Yes, but first you need to decide whether you want to move house. Do you want to live out in the country, nearer your family, in a retirement community or just downsize to release equity?
Today’s uncertain housing market, with far more homes on sale than buyers on the prowl, means you must work hard to sell your property. But it is also a good time to pick up a better place than you ever thought you could afford. There are some serious reductions out there and a lot of bargaining can be done.
It is a sign of how challenging the market has become when owners of beautiful homes are resorting to such incentives. The latest figures from HM Revenue & Customs show 79,000 homes were purchased in July, some 10 per cent down on July last year. But while many younger sellers have the time, and perhaps the money, to wait until the market recovers, retirees are up against the clock. They want to make the most of their new-found spare time, hence the spate of deals and incentives offered to woo reluctant buyers.
Maximising property choices for older members of the population is becoming more important. A further 800,000 baby-boomers, born in the years just after the Second World War, will pass the age of 65 by the end of 2012. In the longer term, the proportion of Britons who will be 65-plus is forecast to rise from 17 per cent now to 23 per cent by 2034.
Some retirees step off the ownership ladder completely and rent, freeing their equity to spend on holidays or families. Market commentators say this approach is on the increase because it allows older owners to realise the capital that they have built up in their homes. Many also use the equity to rent in a location where they may not have been able to afford to buy, while others help their children or grandchildren purchase homes to beat the current mortgage drought.
With the army of retirees growing in number, these new means of enjoying later life may become more commonplace in the future. And this looks set to continue even when the housing market eventually picks up. In the meantime, those wanting to sell their home and buy the perfect retirement haven have to come up with increasingly novel ways of living their dream.
Buy the right home for your retirement
- Check access to transport and what’s important to you – theatre, restaurants, sport or visiting family.
- If you want to live near other retirees, highest concentrations are in Devon, Cornwall, Suffolk, East Anglia and the Yorkshire Dales.
- If you’re considering the coast, visit during winter – some resorts close down – and check for flooding.
- If you choose the country, does it get cut off in snow?
- Will it suit if you no longer drive?
- Bargain hard. It’s a buyer’s market and money saved now will help later.
- Check if rooms, doorways and corridors can be modified should you find it harder to walk?
- Is the garden easy to manage?
- If buying in a retirement community, check any service charges – they can be high.
- Check if you can move away from a retirement community if it does not suit you. Some have exit fees.