At 48 and 54, Geoff Wilford and Suzannah Agrippa are rather young to be . It’s a property move more commonly taken by those in their 60s or older, but escalating costs are forcing a growing number of younger homeowners to make a volte-face on the property ladder and scale back down again.
“Stripping back unnecessary costs” is how Wilford, an estate agent, describes it – a process that began when their from 1,500 to 2,000 a month following Truss’s disastrous 2022 mini-Budget.
“I was paying 24,000 a year after tax for a house that had three bedrooms we weren’t even using,” says Wilford, founder of Wilfords London.
Moving from a large four-bed house to a small two-bed property in Balham, south London, has given them “freedom, flexibility and quality of life”, he says.
Feeling in your 70s, due to financial constraints or ill health, can be a sobering reminder of one’s mortality.
“Downsizing younger takes away a lot of the emotional weight,” says Wilford. “We’ve moved into a home that fits the life we want to live now – not a retirement plan for 20 years down the line.”
Estate agents across London and the South East are reporting a sharp rise in Gen X downsizers. Edward Heaton, from buying agency Heaton & Partners, reports “more people downsizing in their 40s and 50s than we have ever witnessed before”.
He says this is due to a combination of factors eroding people’s spending power. “There is some serious pain out there, and significant adjustments to some people’s...
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