‘Hanover Insights’: Retirement Housing frees up Family Homes

‘Unlocking Britain’s empty rooms’

Mortgage lenders are cutting back on the numbers of home loans, developers are putting the brakes on new projects and ‘letting go’ of their workforce, yet the need for more housing has not gone away. Hanover, an established housing association commissioned the University of York’s Centre for Housing Policy to conduct research to understand where Hanover’s new residents were moving from and why.   The research findings suggest that retirement housing may hold the key to providing more homes.

A key finding was that 36% of residents had formerly occupied property with three or more bedrooms.   The research also showed that 47% of previous owner occupiers were taking their equity out of the housing market and moving into rented retirement accommodation.   The potential implications of these findings are immense, especially for people who are desperate to own their own home or need more space. 

  “We felt it was important to publish these research findings; we’ve launched Hanover Insights reports as a way to share our expertise in retirement housing. We have a large pool of residents who are willing to tell us what they think and feel about retirement living.  Our residents are an invaluable source of information and our research insights help us to provide a better quality service,” said Bruce Moore Hanover’s Chief Executive.

“The national demographics tell us there are increasing numbers of older people often living alone and there is also a huge backlog of families who are desperate for family housing with three or more bedrooms and gardens.   We believe that affordable retirement housing can provide the security, sense of community and, if needed, support, for a proportion of older people who are currently living alone in larger properties they can no longer manage”. 

 “Affordable retirement property provides a practical and cost effective solution for older people whether they want to rent and buy their homes,” he continued, “the challenge is to provide more and better retirement housing, ideally with 2 bedrooms, for sale as well as for rent.  By doing this retirement housing will provide older people with the type of housing they want as well as releasing family homes that are currently under occupied.”

*Data compiled by postal survey of 2000 households, drawn from approximately 5000 households who had become Hanover residents since January 2005.

Notes for Editors:

•  Hanover is the leading provider of affordable retirement property with a range of support services, for older people to rent or buy with 45 years’ experience and nearly 19,000 residents.
• Hanover Insights is launching on 23rd July, 2008 at the Royal Society of Arts, chaired by Lord Best OBE Hanover’s Chair, with Baroness Andrews OBE in attendance.
• Hanover Insights will be published regularly by Hanover; if you would like to receive copies, please email communications@hanover.org.uk. Hanover Insights, Unlocking Britain’s empty rooms can be read here.
• A copy of the University of York’s research report can be found here.