When Candice Daltry moved into an 18th century lodge in Essex, the property was, in many ways, her dream home. Beautiful, historic and, at around 4,500 sq ft, huge.
But it didn’t take long for the shine to come off.
Candice, who bought the property in 2016 with her now ex-husband, quickly realised how expensive a historic home is to run. Basic household bills started out at around £3,000 a month, which was bad enough, but as prices began to rise, they spiralled to some £5,000 a month.
The property was Grade II listed which meant that repairs were difficult and expensive, and the large garden was a burden.
The couple had, between them, three children, but they were growing up and moving out.
“It was just us two rattling around in it,” said Candice, 51. “And I think that you get disconnected from each other when you have so much space. You are always in different rooms. Bigger isn’t always better.”
People living in homes considered too large for their needs have found themselves, in recent years, under pressure to move on.
If the so-called bedroom blockers (and there are 8.3 million households with two or more spare bedrooms according to the English Housing Survey) would move to smaller property, the thinking goes, then more homes would become available for young families.
But there are many barriers to downsizing.
Will Bax, chief executive of Retirement Villages Group, recently called for stamp duty to be abolished for people over 75 because the cost is deterring movers. And, of course, there is the stress and exertion of arranging a house move, and the wrench of leaving a well-loved home.
But, as Candice has discovered, there are also upsides to downsizing which go far beyond the obvious financial ones.
In 2022, Candice and her husband had their property valued at £1.5m and put it on the market. Unfortunately, their timing was bad. In the immediate aftermath of the mini-Budget in September that year, their buyer pulled out.
It took them until 2023 to find a replacement and the sale went through in January 2024.
The couple had initially planned to buy themselves two smaller homes, a country pad in Norfolk and a bolt hole in the Home Counties, but their split meant a rethink.
The lodge was on the outskirts of Harlow and Candice, a reformer pilates instructor, decided to remain in Essex.
Her choice was a brand new four-bedroom house in Takeley, a village close to Stansted Airport. At 1,300 sq ft, it is a third of the size of her former home.
Candice moved into the circa £600,000 four-bedroom property, at the Woodbanks development by house builder Stonebond, in January. Thanks to her stake in the lodge, she is now mortgage free.
Her monthly running costs have tumbled to around £800 a month.
“As much as I loved the old house, it was spacious and beautiful and lovely, everything just cost a lot of money,” she said.
“This house is a relief in that way. Do I miss anything about the old house? Only silly things. I do miss my carport. But there is a lot less cleaning to do here – I used to need a cleaner, now I do it myself, I prefer a smaller garden because I am not a gardener, and I like its clean lines.”
An unexpected benefit to Candice has been how safe she feels in her new home.
“The old place had a wraparound garden with loads of doors going from the garden into the various rooms,” she said. “Here I just have a front door and a back door, and as a woman I do feel more secure.”
While Candice feels safer in her smaller home, downsizing has brought Tamara Selaman, 44, and her son Charlie, 11, a greater sense of freedom.
Last summer, they exchanged their townhouse in Abingdon, near Oxford, for a two-bedroom apartment within a rural manor house.
There were several drivers for their decision to downsize – not least the fact that the five-bedroom house, which belonged to her ex-partner, was too big for the two of them.
On a practical note, Charlie was about to start senior school and was facing a daily school run of almost two hours from Abingdon. And Tamara had just launched her wellbeing centre, Heal Oxford, from a converted barn in the hamlet of Little Baldon, south of Oxford, and wanted to spend less time commuting.
And so, when she discovered that a two-bedroom apartment on the same estate as her barn was coming up for rent at £1,300 a month, she jumped at the chance.
Living costs are comparable at the two properties.
Tamara’s monthly contribution to the mortgage had been £135 a month, but covering the bills were costing her about £800 every month.
For Charlie, the move has meant being closer to school, plus the fun of living on a farm where a peacock roams free and there are farm cats to play with. And, with Tamara working on site, he can spend time at home when she is at work rather than having to come along with her.
“He was asking for more autonomy and I have been able to give it to him,” she said.
“I have found it quite empowering too. Leaving felt like a relief, because we were going somewhere smaller, quieter, and more nurturing.”
Other benefits of a smaller home have been less time spent cleaning. And, because their living space is open plan, Tamara feels she and Charlie spend more time together rather than doing their own thing in separate spaces.
Because their new home is much smaller the move required an intense period of decluttering, which Tamara welcomed.
“I sold everything from the old house because I wanted to start afresh,” she said. “The only thing we kept was Charlie’s bed, because he wanted that, but otherwise it has been like closing a chapter and starting a new one with new energy.”
Traditionally, people downsize at around the same time they retire, and Eddie and Jayne Hall decided to walk the downsizing path after becoming empty nesters.
The couple had bought their three-bedroom 1970s house in the mid-1990s and raised James, now 28, and Samantha, 25, there.
For a young family the Surrey town was ideal – good schools, good commuter links, close to airports, and handy for trips to the south coast.
But after Eddie, 69, retired from his job in the printing industry the good local transport links became less important, and they started to find Bagshot simply too noisy and busy.
“We didn’t really notice the aircraft noise and the buzz from the M3 until Covid, when it all stopped,” said Eddie. “Then we thought, we are retired, we don’t have to sit here and listen to this anymore.”
They decided they would prefer a more peaceful, rural area and Eddie was keen on the idea of a brand new home.
“Our old house needed work to the windows, to the roof, redecorating,” he said. “I thought: ‘Do I want that aggravation and cost, or do I move out and let someone else deal with it?’,” he said. “It was not worth the cost, time, and effort for the return. I liked the idea of moving somewhere that was all clean and light.”
He also wanted to release some capital from the Bagshot property.
The couple began house hunting in the summer of 2021 and settled on the Cross Trees Park development in the village of Shrivenham, Oxfordshire.
They put their house on the market that December, and moved into a house at the Legal & General Homes development in August 2022.
Their new home also has three bedrooms but is more compact than their Bagshot house, which sold for £550,000 less moving costs of around £10,000.
They paid £420,000 for their new home which has allowed them to add to their pension pot and give some money to James and Samantha.
“It is like giving them some of their inheritance now, rather than them waiting until they are in their fifties,” said Eddie.
Eddie and Jayne, 55, also believe the new house is cheaper to run than their Bagshot home although Eddie says that utility companies’ insistence on estimating bills means they aren’t completely sure how big the savings are yet.
“They keep on coming down,” he said.
Leaving Bagshot was an emotional wrench for Jayne in particular, but Eddie said they have been delighted by the steady stream of people wanting to come and visit them in their new country home.
And since all of Cross Trees Park residents moved in at roughly the same time and are a similar age group, they have found it surprisingly easy to build a new community.
Eddie has joined the local golf club, Jayne is a member of the gardening club, and they find that people want to stop and chat as they take their miniature poodle, Harry, for walks.
“Everyone has moved here looking to enhance their lives,” he said. “We have made the effort, and we have probably got a stronger neighbourhood network than before.”
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