Empty nesters choosing to downsize

Posted: 09 Nov 2007 12:54:19 GMT

Many empty nesters are downsizing their home in order to help their children onto the property ladder.

Many empty nesters are downsizing their home in order to help their children onto the property ladder.

Savills says that with house prices being so high, many first-time buyers (FTBs) need help from their parents in order to make it into the housing market.

With this in mind, and the fact that the parents no longer need a large house, many are choosing to downsize and give some of the equity to their children.

"When you end up with your empty nesters, one of the first things they are going to want to do is to get [their children] on the housing ladder, and because of affordability issues for first-time buyers, what we have seen is that the proportion of first-time buyers who are getting an injection of capital from other sources – and relying on the parents to help them out – has increased," said Lucian Cook from Savills.

"The people who are downsizing are not going to take the place of first-time buyers. All they are going to do by downsizing is going to free up capital to enable their children to get on to the housing ladder," he continued.

Nationwide recently revealed that house prices increased by 1.1 per cent in October.

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