I’m in depths of house hunting hell. It should be a fun endeavour after accepting an offer on our modest three-bedroom semi, but we’re hitting a brick wall while searching rather than being tempted into buying them.
With our buyer sitting tight, it’s a timebomb of finding the right, second stepper, family home, while also not being pressured into making a big financial mistake – especially given the size of the potential stamp duty bill.
Currently, I feel like Goldilocks. Many homes are too hot… AKA, the right size, but too expensive for our budget. Many are too cold… AKA, far too pricey for their size.
We’re struggling to find the middle ground – the property that is just the right size and price, in a good location.
The impression my wife and I have had from estate agents in recent months is of a lack of homes coming to market for two main reasons.
The first is the confusion over what Labour may or may not do to the property market in the Budget.
Bungalow wars: Many younger buyers are now snapping them up and there are very few being built
With speculation rife, it appears many homeowners in our area at least feel less confident that the time is right to move.
Indeed, a recent survey by the HomeOwners Alliance shows of those who have been tempted to move in the past two years, a quarter haven’t because stamp duty is too expensive while nearly 30 per cent said moving costs are too high.
The second is the older generation holding onto bigger family homes because of a lack of suitable housing to move to.
I totally sympathise with them and can understand the logic entirely. According to the same survey, 34 per cent of over-55s say a lack of suitable properties has put them off moving.
This is far higher than homeowners as a whole and is the second biggest put-off for over-55s only behind the stress and upheaval of moving.
Which brings me onto bungalows. These are ideal homes for downsizers who want a manageable space and to potentially not have to deal with stairs as they age.
A few years back, I crunched the numbers on just how few bungalows were being built.
Think about all the developments near you, or the ones being planned. Do any of them include smaller homes, perfect for downsizers?
I can’t think of one near my pocket of the country. All the new builds being thrown up are three, four or five bedrooms. We have no interest in buying a new build for a variety of reasons, namely, postage stamp gardens and poor location.
My mum, aged 72, lives in a small one-bedroom house that’s perfect for her. But she was lucky when she downsized eight years ago – the number of one-bedroom houses (not flats) available is minuscule.
We have an aging population, and I believe that smaller, manageable bungalows or one-bed houses need to be built to cope – and it will help unlock properties for those eager to move up the chain.
These need to be good quality and weaved into new build estates so people who move into them feel part of the community.
There must be a clever designer who can stick three or four small homes perfect for older people in the space that a four-bed detached would take-up.
And surely the Government would like this concept… it would help turbocharge its overly ambitious plan to build 1.5million homes by 2030. Four new build homes to stick in the statistics versus one.
National House Building Council data shows bungalows made up 11 per cent of new homes in 1990, but just 1 per cent last year. It’s run below 2 per cent since 2010.
The market share of bungalows vs other property types is shrinking. And what’s making the problem worse is younger buyers snapping up bungalows and sticking a second storey onto them.
On a road near me, there are roughly 50 bungalows that line one street. I counted recently that five of them are currently in the process of having a box stuck on top, and half already have adapted to being two storey.
The HomeOwners Alliance has started a campaign to Bring Back The Bungalow.
It feels a bit: Make Bungalows Great Again, but it claims 1.2million over 55s have abandoned moving plans – that’s one in seven homeowners in this age group who wanted to move, but ultimately felt unable to.
The shortage of bungalows is a major issue, with 38 per cent of homeowners aged 55+ saying they would prefer a bungalow for their next move, making them the most popular choice among this group.
I know we’ll find somewhere to buy eventually. Patience is a virtue and all that, and time is also on our side.
But for many considering a potential last move into something more manageable and to unlock equity for their retirement, the faff of it all – and finding that needle in a haystack – might very much be filed into the ‘do that tomorrow’ category.
And I don’t blame them.
Have you put off downsizing? Get in touch: editor@thisismoney.co.uk
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