Downsizing involves selling a larger home to buy a smaller property to free up cash for retirement or other things. Whether you want to buy a second home or have more money in your pocket for leisure activities, trading down this way can change your life for the better.
While there are some drawbacks — including having less room to live — downsizing your home delivers several positive outcomes. Here are five of the most exciting.
1. Remove the clutter from your life
The more space we have, the more we tend to hoard. Many of us could quite quickly move to a smaller property if we removed unwanted and unused possessions from our homes.
Downsizing makes de-cluttering your live a necessity. You don’t have the space for all the items you’ve accumulated over the years, so you give them away or sell them. And that’s a very liberating experience. In addition, having fewer possessions in your home means less cleaning — and less stress.
2. Generate cash
If you can quickly move to a smaller property, you have an excellent opportunity to generate cash for large purchases or lifestyle changes. For example, if you have a lot of equity in your home, downsizing can free a lot of it up. And that’s money you can spend on holidays, the purchase of a car, putting your children through university or simply living a more fulfilling life.
You might want to pay off your debts and leave yourself with more disposable income every month. Unlock the value in your property by selling it, and use the cash to settle your loans, credit cards and hire purchase agreements.
3. Slash the cost of living
A large home is always more expensive to run than a small one. Take your energy bills, for example. A four-bedroom house with large rooms requires a lot more gas than a one-bedroom apartment. And a lot more electricity is needed to light the big spaces in the larger property.
Downsizing your home should result in lower maintenance and repair costs. And the price of decorative works and renovations should be a lot lower, too. If all this isn’t impressive enough, you can also look forward to significantly reduced Council Tax bills.
4. A fresh start
Living in a large home for several years doesn’t always give you the chance to create your personal space from scratch. Instead, you add to the property over many years. And then, one day, you realise it’s nothing like the home you initially imagined.
Downsizing is an excellent opportunity to choose a home that suits your requirements. Perhaps your children have grown up and moved out. Or maybe you’ve decided to work from home now. It may be that your tastes have changed. Whatever the reason for downsizing, it’s a chance to start your life with a blank canvas.
5. Help the environment
If you own a large, older property, the chances are it’s not as environmentally friendly as it could be. And to make it so might cost several thousand pounds. But choose a smaller, new-build property, and those energy-saving features you want will probably be in place from day one.
A smaller home requires a lot less energy. And it’s built to modern standards of efficiency and energy preservation. So you get to save a lot of money and reduce your carbon footprint at the same time.
