Downsizing in London 2024

By Tony Emerson

The story below is provided for those who may be in a similar situation to Tony and his wife and need confidence to take the ‘downsizing plunge.’

Why did we downsize? In Dec 2019 I had a serious illness. Oona, my wife, knew we couldn’t manage our five bed house on our own. Our adult children are now settled in their new homes. But I loved the space that we had, the garden where I grew soft fruit, the view of the horse chestnut trees from our spacious bedroom, the friendly neighbourhood.

However most of our rooms were empty most of the time. We weren’t part of a family who visited us regularly. Our son and daughter both agreed that we should move. I was also becoming very aware of important societal issues around housing shortage. My resistance to downsizing weakened over time.

Then in Aug 2023 we attended a party in Gaumont Place, a large modern development on Streatham Hill. From the balcony of this lovely two-bed apartment, I looked around at the flats on this well-designed estate, down at the really verdant garden below us. For me, a damascene conversion to the downsizing project. Our friend who gave the party agreed to tell us about flats for sale. Oona and I both wanted to stay in Streatham.

Early this year we made our preliminary enquiries. We looked at other estates in the area. None really compared with Gaumont Place. We could have got something cheaper, but we could afford the extra cost of Gaumont as we were selling a family house. We got advice about estate agents and legal firms from another friend who’s in the property business.

In February we engaged an estate agent and a legal firm. Dexters have a high volume of business. They already had clients looking for property on our road.  We were fortunate in having a much sought-after school nearby. Dexters charged us only 1.25% commission and the agent assigned to us was competent, conscientious and considerate and kind. We were not so happy with our legal firm. We needed a firm which might have charged more but made our search tasks less demanding.

In early March we started viewing properties. Our friend forwarded details of two suitable properties on Gaumont Place. We chose the first one as it had a view of the garden area. We agree a price without much hassle.

In late March our house in Leigham Vale was ready for viewing. Our estate agent arranged for three potential buyers to view it one Saturday. Only one turned up. Delete Potential – these buyers put in an offer and we accepted it, again without much hassle.

We realised that we were in a chain of five people. Any break in the chain could put us back to square one. So we did not try to maximise our sale price or minimise our purchase price.

In April to June we had to deal with 60 + search queries, mainly from our buyers solicitors. A very different world from 1987 when we bought 44 Leigham Vale, much more legalistic. One query was about a garden fence dispute in 1972 (long before we purchased 44 LV).

Plus our on-going de-cluttering programme. We were used to five bedrooms, three living rooms, an attic, a cellar, and a bike shed. We moved to a flat with three rooms, even if one is very large.  We gave the local second-hand charity shops a lot of trade, while in Leigham Vale anything we put in a box outside our gate was gone in two days.

By July we were very conscious of our sadness in leaving our home. We had a ‘bye, bye  bonfire’ for our neighbours.  A bit like an Irish wake! The memories of reading stories to our children, the extended family meals. No garden any more, no bonfires, no more growing of our own fruit and flowers (save for a few flower pots on our new balcony). The list goes on.

Friday July 26th was completion day! Our move to the Gaumont Place apartment. Very good removal and house clearance firms. But we spent three hours in a café awaiting the go-ahead to collect our apartment keys.

In summary, the financial cost was considerable. But given that the difference between what we got for the property we sold and what we paid for that wasn’t a barrier. The real costs were more emotional.  The upheaval in our lives (even though we moved less than a mile way), and the sadness in leaving our beloved family home.

But what an achievement – personal, societal, environmental!  Personally the costs more that balanced by the benefits. No more worries about leaking roofs, walls needing repointing, broken fences, problems with gas boiler, etc – Gaumont Place is all-electric. Financially better off.  A new neighbourhood and a lovely estate to be enjoyed.

Then there are the societal benefits we are contributing to. Showing by example what we older citizens can do to relieve the housing crisis.  Other contributors today will give you the national figures and the big picture.  But in the seven, similar sized houses either side of us on Leigham Vale, four of our houses had a total of five people living in them. The other three had 23.

Then there is our contribution to reducing the emissions that cause climate destabilisation. Our political leaders all promise to build more houses. But building construction has a very high carbon cost.  If we built 300,000 new houses a year, as many of our leaders would like, it would take up all the UK’s sustainable climate emission budget.

Downsizing is but one of many ways to solve the housing crisis without building anew. But it’s one means that many of us senior citizens can consider.