The UK’s housing debate continues to be dominated by one question: how do we build more homes?
It is an important question. Housing delivery, affordability and planning reform remain at the centre of government policy and industry discussion.
At the same time, the UK’s population is ageing, increasing the importance of ensuring that new homes reflect changing demographic needs. Yet there is another question which arguably receives far less attention than it deserves.
Are we building the right homes for the population we will have in the decades ahead?
Recent research undertaken for the Radix Big Tent Housing Commission found that more than half of people aged over 65 are considering moving to a smaller property in the future. However, many identified significant barriers to doing so, including stamp duty, a lack of suitable housing options and insufficient specialist accommodation.
This is not simply a question of individual housing choices. It goes to the heart of how effectively the housing market functions.
The Importance of Housing Mobility
Much of the discussion around housing focuses on overall supply, and understandably so. The UK continues to face significant housing shortages in many areas.
However, a successful housing market relies on more than just the delivery of new homes. It also depends upon people being able to move through the housing system as their circumstances change.
The needs of a family with young children are often very different from those of a retired couple. Equally, the housing requirements of someone in their seventies or eighties may differ significantly from those they had twenty years earlier.
The challenge is that suitable alternatives are not always available when people are ready to make a move.
As a result, many older households remain in homes that may no longer be particularly well suited to their needs, whilst larger family accommodation can become increasingly difficult for younger households to access.
The discussion is often framed as downsizing, but many older people are not necessarily seeking smaller homes. The objective is better housing, not simply less housing. For some households, a spare room for visiting family members, carers or home working may remain important. The issue is whether homes are accessible, manageable and appropriate to changing needs.
The conversation therefore becomes about more than housing supply. It becomes a discussion about housing choice and housing mobility.
Demographic Change is Reshaping the Housing Market
The UK is experiencing significant demographic change.
At the same time as demand grows for family housing, there is increasing recognition of the need for retirement housing, housing with care, extra care accommodation and other forms of specialist later living provision.
The benefits of providing suitable accommodation for older people are increasingly well understood. The right housing can help support independence, improve wellbeing and enable people to remain active within their communities for longer. It can also play an important role in supporting wider health and social care objectives.
Yet specialist later living accommodation continues to represent only a small proportion of overall housing delivery. Some estimates suggest that the UK may need around 50,000 specialist homes for older people each year, whilst current delivery remains only a fraction of that level.
The Radix research suggests that many older households would consider rightsizing if suitable options were available. Indeed, it has been estimated that around one quarter of under-occupying households in their mid-seventies would move if the right homes existed.
This raises an important question. As the population continues to age, are we planning sufficiently for the housing needs of older people, or are we still primarily focused on traditional housing categories?
Changing Perceptions, Creating Choices
The debate is not solely about increasing supply. It is also about changing perceptions.
Specialist later living accommodation is still too often seen as a last resort. In practice, many modern retirement communities, housing–with–care and extra care schemes are designed to support independence, activity and community life.
Part of the challenge is cultural. Too often, later-life moves are viewed through the lens of loss or necessity rather than opportunity. Yet the evidence suggests that many people who move earlier do so to find a better home in which to age, rather than because a crisis has forced the decision.
Many people’s perceptions of retirement housing have been shaped by regular media coverage of historical schemes, particularly around resale values, exit arrangements and service charges. Those concerns can be especially difficult for families dealing with a sale after a resident has died.
Those experiences must not be dismissed, but the market has evolved. There is now a wider range of tenure options, operating models and housing choices than many people may realise.
That includes a growing rental market. For many older people, renting can offer flexibility and reduce concerns about future resale values, making the decision to move easier.
A healthy later living sector should therefore offer a range of choices, including ownership, shared ownership, affordable housing, private rental and housing-with-care solutions, recognising that last-time buyers, like first-time buyers, have different financial circumstances, priorities and aspirations.
Clearer terminology would also help. If people are to move with confidence, they need to understand not only that suitable housing exists, but also what the different options mean.
Looking Beyond Housing Numbers
One of the more interesting recent planning proposals comes from the Church Commissioners for England, which has submitted outline proposals for approximately 1,600 homes at Ely. While the eventual housing mix remains uncertain, the scheme forms part of a wider 3,000-home urban extension incorporating schools, employment space, community facilities and green infrastructure.
What makes schemes such as Ely particularly interesting is their potential to accommodate people at different stages of life within a single community. That mirrors a growing consensus that later living accommodation should not be treated as a niche housing product delivered in isolation, but as an integral component of successful new neighbourhoods.
Large-scale developments increasingly seek to create complete communities rather than standalone housing estates. They provide homes, employment opportunities, services, open space and supporting infrastructure.
The most successful examples are often those which recognise that communities require a diverse range of housing options capable of supporting residents through different stages of life, including specialist accommodation for older residents.
The involvement of the Church is also noteworthy. As a major landowner with a long-term stewardship role, it has the potential to influence not only how much housing is delivered, but what kind of communities are created. If land is brought forward with an emphasis on social purpose, community infrastructure and intergenerational living, it can help move the debate beyond simple housing numbers and towards the delivery of more balanced places.
As strategic landowners, developers and local authorities look towards the next generation of major developments, the question of housing mix may become every bit as important as housing numbers.
A Wider Conversation
The discussion around rightsizing frequently focuses on stamp duty reform, and there are compelling arguments on both sides of that debate. However, tax policy alone is unlikely to solve the challenge.
People can only move if there is somewhere attractive, affordable and appropriate to move to.
That means delivering a wider range of later living accommodation, providing greater housing choice and ensuring that specialist housing forms part of long-term planning strategies rather than being viewed as a niche product.
Increasingly, conversations around housing delivery, healthy ageing, social care and community planning are beginning to overlap.
Looking Ahead
The UK’s housing challenge is often presented as a numbers game. Yet demographic change suggests that the conversation may need to become more sophisticated.
The question is not simply whether enough homes are being built. It is also whether the homes being delivered reflect how people will actually live in the future.
If housing mobility becomes a greater policy and market priority over the coming years, then later living, housing with care and specialist accommodation for older people may prove to be some of the most important parts of the housing sector.
Better housing choices for older people should not be viewed as competing with the needs of younger households. In many respects, the two objectives are closely connected. A housing market that enables older people to move when they wish to do so is also a housing market that creates more opportunities for families and first-time buyers.
The debate about housing supply will undoubtedly continue. Perhaps it is also time for a broader discussion about housing choice.
How Can We Help?
The future of housing delivery is increasingly shaped by demographic change, planning policy and evolving community needs. We advise landowners, developers and promoters on residential development, strategic land and regeneration projects. To discuss any of the issues raised in this article, please get in touch.
