Home Owners Staying Put
Home owners are staying put for nearly two decades before moving home, research by Barclays has revealed.
A report from the bank released over the weekend in partnership with property data firm Hometrack highlights how the average home owner in the UK now moves every 18.7 years and instead of moving is upgrading or extending their home.
There is significant regional variation in the data, which ranges from 14.7 and 22.6 years between each move depending on location. Home owners in Scotland, the South West and the East of England are moving the most often while those in Wales, the North East and Yorkshire and the Humber are moving the least often.
Location, Location, Location TV show presenter Phil Spencer (left) says such long periods spent in properties is driving a boom in extensions and conversions as the cost of creating more room becomes significantly less than that of moving.
Ten years ago the average time spent between home moves was 13.5 years, according to research by Savills. It says that tighter lending rules introduced by the FCA mean home owners in lower-growth parts of the UK are struggling to build up enough equity to trade up the property ladder.
“We expect the number of home movers to be largely static over the course of the five-year forecast period,” its report says.
“In the longer term, as with first-time buyers, home owners’ ability to trade up will increasingly depend on either a change in their personal finances or an injection of equity from older generations.”