An additional 7,194 spare bedrooms have been locked out of the Bridgend
housing market since 2011 as Britain’s ageing population means the country’s
stock of homes is being used more unproductively.
The number of spare bedrooms in Bridgend between 2011 and 2021 increased from 69,921 to 77,115.
The number of Bridgend households living in properties with at least two
spare bedrooms (i.e. spare ‘spare’ bedrooms) increased by 3,290, from 24,430
households to 27,720 households between those ten years.
That means 44.5% of Bridgend households have two or more spare bedrooms.
And this isn’t just a local issue; Britain has 8,902,471
properties with a spare ‘spare’ bedroom (i.e. they have two or more spare
bedrooms).
Before I dive deep into the issue of these ‘spare’ spare
bedrooms, let me look at the ‘occupancy rating’ of all households in the country.
There are 8.26 million households with one spare bedroom,
6.57million households with no spare bedrooms (i.e. the household’s accommodation has an ideal
number of bedrooms), 880,672 households where they are classed as
over-crowded under the ‘Bedroom Standard’ by one bedroom and 173,751 households
where they are classed as over-crowded under the ‘Bedroom Standard’ by two
bedrooms.
The ‘Bedroom Standard’ allocates a separate bedroom to each of these groups (according to the Office of National Statistics):
- adult couple
- any remaining adult (aged 21 years or
over) - two adolescents (aged 10 to 20 years)
of the same sex - one adolescent (aged 10 to 20 years)
and one child (aged 9 years or under) of the same sex - two children (aged 9 years or under)
regardless of sex - any remaining child (aged 9 years or
under)
So, with this serious overcrowding, why is this
under-occupation happening and is there a better use for these homes?
Britain has an ageing population. Just over 1 in 5 (18.6%) of Britain’s population are aged 65 years or older, compared with 1 in 6 (16.4%) a decade ago.
In the last ten years, many of Britain’s baby boomer generation
(currently aged 59 years to 77 years of age) have entered retirement.
Most of these extra bedrooms are in homes owned by these baby boomers, who
are probably still living in the original family homes they bought in the 1980s
or 1990s to raise their children, yet still live there years after their
children left home.
And it will get worse throughout the 2020s as the number of Brits living
in homes greater than their needs will grow further as the demographics of the
British population shift.
There are 68,247,855 bedrooms in England & Wales, and even if nobody
shared a room, there would be enough for every one of the 59,597,542 of us to
have a bedroom and still have 8,650,313 spare bedrooms! They are very unequally
distributed between households.
What’s the answer?
Some on the left
suggest we forcibly make these older mature Bridgend homeowners people move to
smaller homes. Yet, it’s their property; they paid the mortgage on it for years
(especially when mortgage interest rates were 15% and above), and thus, it’s
their choice if they want to move or not.
Some of the difficulties
are that downsizing in Bridgend often needs to make financial sense for mature
homeowners.
Most mature Bridgend
homeowners live in average-priced homes and suitable bungalows, even though
they are smaller, often cost as much, if not more, than their large family
home.
This
issue will slowly worsen in the coming twenty years, so what are the options?
There
is a necessity to motivate builders to build suitable properties for these
mature homeowners to move into and to change the dynamics of the available
properties to buy. For example, there are only 2 million bungalows in the UK, and
we only built just over 1,800
new bungalows in 2020, yet seven in ten UK people (c. 10.7 million) aged over
65 want to live in a bungalow.
Secondly, there
needs to be reform of the taxation rules on housing. Taxation works on the
carrot or stick method.
The ‘stick’ could make
it less attractive to stay in larger houses by increasing the higher council
tax rates in the higher council tax bands. The ‘carrot’ could incentivise mature
homeowners to downsize with allowances on stamp duty or inheritance tax, thus
making a move easier.
However, the
cost-of-living crisis and heightened energy bills could be doing the
Government’s job for them.
The number of larger Bridgend
homes owned by mature homeowners, often for 25 years plus, has been snowballing
in the last six months.
This is good news
for younger families that can afford to jump from their smaller homes, yet many
can’t afford to make the jump for the same reasons why mature homeowners are
moving home.
For example, of the
181,195 properties put on the market in the UK in November and December 2022,
56.9% were under £350,000. However, of the properties sold in the UK since
Christmas 2022, 66.3% of them have been £350,000 or less.
This means those homeowners
in the middle to upper levels of the Bridgend property market need to be very
realistic with this pricing as the supply of the mid/high range properties is
outstripping the demand.
Whilst
it is not a good distribution of housing if you have some
people in overcrowded households and others with spare bedrooms, everyone
should be able to choose how to live.
Many Bridgend homeowners delay downsizing because they prefer to grow
old in their family home rather than downsize. However, I often see mature
homeowners downsizing too late when say, they have had a fall, are unable to
manage the basics of gardening or cleaning, or the home becomes a physical
hazard.
This downsizing phase will continue to grow, peaking in the mid-2030s.
The issue is, I
cannot see builders or the Government building hundreds of thousands of
bungalows in the next decade.
So maybe, you should consider making a move in the next few years, when
you will have a better choice of bungalows to move to and you are able to put
your stamp on it when you are in your 70’s and before you are unable to in your
mid/late 80s?
If mature homeowners have large
properties earned from working hard and paying taxes, then quite frankly, that is
nobody else’s business and no one should force you out!! You might want that
extra space for children and grandchildren to come and stay or as office space,
a television room or a hobby room. Yet please, I must stress these are only
suggestions.
These are my thoughts; what are yours?
