Prof Debora Price appears on Moneybox Live to discuss downsizing

31 January 2017

Prof Debora Price appears on Moneybox Live to discuss downsizing.

Prof Debora Price recently appeared on the BBC Radio 4 show Moneybox Live radio show to talk about downsizing.

This issue is expected to be featured in the government’s white paper on housing policy, which is due in January, in terms of incentives to encourage older people to downsize, such as exemptions from stamp duty and help with moving costs. Research from Saga has found that over 70% of older people want to downsize and it is suggested that this ‘right-sizing’ could help relieve the housing crisis as it could free up over 100,000 homes.

Dr Price argued that there are structural issues in the housing market that prevent downsizing, particularly that there are not enough of the right kind of properties in the right places to meet the needs of downsizers. She highlighted how health issues also prevent people from downsizing, and questioned whether tax breaks for downsizing is the right way to tackle this challenge.

The show received many interesting calls during the show and discussion on Twitter afterwards, proving that downsizing is a very topical issue that people feel strongly about. 

Links

Return to the full list of news stories.