Half of Ilkley Homeowners Move Again Within 6 Years and 45 Weeks – Why?

In Britain, there are 27,071,500 households, of which 17,044,450 are owned and are wortha total of £3,925,865,212,950 (£3.92 trillion). Over the last 5 years, an average of 86,096properties sell each month, meaning just over a million UK households move home per year.


In Britain, there are 27,071,500 households, of which 17,044,450 are owned and are worth
a total of £3,925,865,212,950 (£3.92 trillion). Over the last 5 years, an average of 86,096
properties sell each month, meaning just over a million UK households move home per year.

Therefore, the average British homeowner moves every 16 years 5 months.
These statistics refute a common hypothesis that British neighbourhoods are becoming
more fleeting and transitory. On the face of it, they appear to show that, once you have
succeeded to buy a property you can call home, there isn’t much motivation to move again.
So, aren’t people moving home so much?

Could it be put down to a certain sense of complacency or apathy to moving home?
Whereas we might love our home in Ilkley or Leeds, most of you (including myself) still want to
‘better our lives’ with a bigger house, better area etc, which typically requires us to climb up
the Ilkley and Leeds property ladder.

Yet with Ilkley and Leeds house prices having risen by 185.7% in the
last 20 years, the cost of going up the next rung on the Ilkley and Leeds property ladder is prohibitive.

Everyone harks back to the 1980’s, when we had an upbeat booming property market as a
backcloth, Brits moved home every eight years; so now with the average at just over 16
years this equates to each British homeowner moving around three to four times in their
adult lifetime. Maybe we should all call our homes ‘Dunroamin’ and be done with it!

Or does it? We have all heard the phrase ‘lies, damn lies and statistics’ … well the stats mentioned
above hide some amazing features of the British property market. When homeowners get
into their 50’s and 60’s, their tendency to move home drops like a stone. The average length
of time a homeowner without a mortgage moves home is 24 years and 7 months (and just
under 7 out of ten outright homeowners i.e. without a mortgage are 65 years old or older).
Yet, homeowners with a mortgage move on average every10 years and 11 weeks.

So, whilst I cannot determine who has a mortgage and who doesn’t, I can look at how
quickly people move home in Ilkley and Leeds. I have looked at the last 50 property sales in
Ilkley and Leeds, and I have found some interesting findings.

On average Ilkley and Leeds homeowners only move every 14 years and 27 weeks.
Nothing interesting about that you might say, when compared to the national average ... yet
the devil is in the detail.

There appears to be a two speed Ilkley and Leeds property market … look at the top 25% of
Ilkley and Leeds home movers, and then the next slice … these Ilkley and Leeds people are
moving home really quickly, yet the gap for the next two slices widens tremendously.

 Top 25% quickest Ilkley and Leeds home movers move every 3 years & 34 weeks
 The next 25% quickest Ilkley and Leeds home movers move every 9 years & 44 weeks
 The next 25% quickest Ilkley and Leeds home movers move every 19 years & 4 weeks
 Whilst top 25% slowest Ilkley and Leeds home movers only move every 25 years

When looking at the properties that fall into the later bands (i.e. the ones that don’t
move/sell so often), they tend to be the larger properties where the homeowners have lived
for 25/30 years plus.

The lesson we all should learn is that once people get into their 50’s and 60’s, their
propensity to move home drops considerably. This means the properties on the lower rungs
of the Ilkley and Leeds property ladder do appear to sell quickly (as they are occupied by
younger homeowners) yet once Ilkley and Leeds people get older, their tendency to move
diminishes. This puts a roadblock on the younger generation wanting to buy the larger Ilkley
and Leeds properties these mature homeowners live in.
What is holding the older generation back from selling and downsizing to free up homes for
families that desperately need them? Some of it will be apathy, some of it will be holding on
to the home that they brought their family up in, yet the bottom line is …
46.5% of the homes owned in Britain have
two or more spare bedrooms.

As a nation, we need to rethink how we can encourage older homeowners to sell their large
homes to release them to the younger families that desperately need them. Some suggest
tax breaks, yet the Government won’t be in the mood to give huge tax breaks as the
measures to protect the economy over the last 12 months will ultimately need to be paid
back.

One thing I do know, we as a Country have seen (and will continue to see) a lot of
demographic change together with an increasing elderly population, so it’s not just about
how many homes we build, but whether we are building the right kind of homes the older
generation will want to move into.
Interesting times ahead for the Ilkley and Leeds property market!

If you have an Ilkley property to sell or let in the coming weeks, months or years and
would like to know how this and other factors will affect you and your property ... without
obligation, don’t hesitate to give me a call or drop me line.

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