Most of us imagined that if our home became too big, too lonely or too difficult to manage, we’d move to somewhere better suited. Yet very few people actually do.  

For years, we’ve tended to assume that it’s because older people don’t like change. But while researching retirement housing for my Cambridge masters’ degree, I began wondering whether we are asking the right question.  

What if older people are making perfectly rationale decisions in the face of deeply flawed options in the housing market?  Working with the National Innovation Centre for Ageing’s Voice Community, I surveyed older people about what home means to them, their worries about moving, and what they wanted later in life.  

Again and again, people spoke about wanting independence, security, community, and flexibility but not at any cost. They were deeply concerned about the costs of moving home and the risks of losing money.  One Voice member summed up the dilemma beautifully: “I don’t want to move somewhere that leaves my children worse off”.  

These sentiments made me curious. Were the worries justified? So I turned to do the data.  

The UK’s housing shortage is especially acute for older people. Government’s Older People’s Housing Taskforce in 2024 found a need of 30,000 specialist homes per year versus just 4,000 being built. This means there are fewer choices for older people, without them having to travel far from the places they want to be.  

My research, conducted in 2025, looked into this decisions that older people make to move, and suggested one answer that is usually overlooked. Older people are not resistant to change. Instead, they are making a rational decision to stay put, in the face of poor choices, unclear costs, and real – and justified – fears about losing money.  

I used English property transactions over 20 years,  to see how retirement housing performed. The results were stark:,  

First, retirement homes typically do not protect people’s wealth as well as ordinary homes. Homes for older people underperform the general market substantially, especially when bought new and sold for the first time. Their sales prices are more volatile than general housing, and they often keep falling in price creating a high likelihood of financial loss over time.  

Second, renting often makes sense. As most people would expect, the shorter the stay, the more likely that renting is better financially. Typically, ownership is better than renting after 7 years, although this varies with value of home.  

Third, some homes keep their value better than others: larger schemes, integrated retirement communities with health and care facilities on site, and more recent developments.  

Perhaps the biggest lesson of this research, is that what older people want most is choice.  

When people were shown clearer information about different housing options, many reconsidered what they had previously assumed was the right answer. That tells us something important – that with the right information, people can feel genuinely excited about the choice of moving in older age.  

Many older Britons will have visited Australia, New Zealand, or USA, where the choices in the retirement housing sector are staggering and many more people chose to move. It is no accident, it is because each country has treated older people’s housing with respect, crafting legislation and unique codes to make older peoples housing cheaper, more abundant and with provide many more options.  

Overall, I finished my research with the Voice Community optimistic. Our biggest misconception is that older people dislike moving, when in fact, we haven’t given them anywhere better to move to. Give people attractive, trusted, financially sensible options, and many more people are open to moving than we once believed. 

We really must do better in providing choice, abundance, and care in older people’s housing. Moving isn’t for everyone, but there should be great options for everyone if they chose it.  

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Gus Wiseman is a former UK Government advisor who has worked in HM Treasury & No 10’s Office for Investment, focussing on pensions, investment, and the built environment. He now works at PATRIZIA, a global investment manager, which builds housing. Gus recently completed a master’s in real estate at Cambridge, researching retirement housing.