Policy Exchange: Building for the Baby Boomers: Making a housing market for an ageing population

Building for the Baby Boomers, by Policy Exchange’s Place Unit Research Fellow Jack Airey, recommends that:

• Government should aim for a significant increase in the number of new retirement homes specifically aimed at older people every year and therefore needs a legal and regulatory platform which enables new models of retirement housing, a new tier of innovative providers to emerge and an intermediate market to develop.
• Government should scrap the 2 percent Stamp Duty band – which is levied on those buying homes between £125,000 and £250,000 – for older homeowners looking to move home, which would generate extra tax revenue.

• Across all tenures, the retirement housing sector must be made a more desirable choice to the baby boomer generation. Essential to this is a stronger emphasis on building retirement homes that are built in designs and styles popular with older people. Public polling prepared by Deltapoll for Policy Exchange found that older people overwhelmingly want a sense of belonging and pride from the look and feel of homes and buildings in their area. They want homes that are energy-efficient, built-to-last and which fit in with other local buildings.

• More consideration should be given to how older renters without adequate retirement savings are supported by the state in later life including whether a new sub-market rental or shared ownership tenure specific to older renters can be supported by government.

“The APPG on Housing and Care for Older People is keen to see a Stamp Duty exemption for those over pension age: this would remove one barrier to downsizing and, surprisingly would bring in extra revenue for HM Treasury from the chain of transactions that follow when one older person makes a move.

There are so many gains from a programme of new housing specifically aimed at those of us now in our ’extended middle age‘. But despite the statistics in this report demonstrating huge demand for tailor-made, high quality, ’age-friendly’ homes, the supply is just not there. The lack of suitable properties is the biggest obstacle to older people moving home.

“In increasing the supply of new homes the housing associations could do a lot more for this age group. However it is clear we also need new players – specialist developers, institutional investors, SMEs and entrepreneurs – who can see the scale of the opportunity.
“I hope the ideas in this report will help the UK toward the tipping point when all of us baby boomers see downsizing as a positive, natural progression in life.”

“Although debates around the housing crisis tend to centre on the experiences of younger people, some of its most acute impacts are felt by older generations. From unsafe stairs to poor heating, too many older people live in homes that limit their physical and mental health.


“Building more homes suited to older people will allow more retirees to live in a house that supports them to lead healthy and happy lives. It will also give more people the opportunity to downsize and draw down their housing equity, releasing money for retirement, and saving money by moving to a home which is easier and cheaper to maintain. Of course, some people will be happiest staying in their current homes, but for too many, the supply simply isn’t there at the moment to allow them to make a real choice. “Ensuring that the quality, design and style of housing tailor-made for older people are high is essential to matching aspirations and encouraging a greater number of older people to move home when it is suited to their needs.


“The aim should be enticing people to move at a younger age, avoiding a more traumatic move in later life and lightening the demand for residential care homes. This, as we argue, can be achieved by increasing the supply of good quality, desirable homes suited for older people.”