Regency Living has calculated how much money England’s downsizers can free up by selling a detached home and downsizing to a park home instead of another brick-and-mortar property*.
Equity release is the money that a person generates by selling their property. For example, if you were to sell a £1m home and then use that money to downsize to a £500,000 home, the money left over would be your equity release which, in this scenario, stands at 50%, or £500,000.
Regency Living’s data analysis reveals that the current average house price in England is £298,229. If a downsizer is to sell their existing home at this price and use the funds to purchase a park home, for which the current average price is £135,031, they would generate an equity release of 54.7%
However, many downsizers are downsizing from large, detached family homes, which means the park home equity release is even greater.
The average price for a detached home in England is £454,060. Take away the average price of a park home and you’re left with £319,029, or 70.3% of your equity.
This equity release can be even larger for downsizers who are selling homes in areas of high house prices.
For example, the average detached home in London commands a price of £966,173. Used to purchase a park home at the average price of £135,031, this would create a park home equity release of 86%, equivalent to more than £830,000 that can be spent on truly enjoying the retirement lifestyle, or used to support younger family members.
In the South East, an average detached house price of £647,162 creates an average park home equity release of 79.1%, followed by the East of England (73.2%), South West (72.4%), and West Midlands (66.1%).
A Regency Living spokesperson commented:
“Homeowners choose to downsize for a number of different reasons. For some it’s about living in a more manageable space now that the kids have moved out, for others it’s about moving away from the hustle and bustle of life to settle in more idyllic surroundings, and sometimes people choose to downsize in order to release some of their wealth by selling a large property and buying a smaller one - otherwise known as equity release.
“Park homes are the go-to choice for so many downsizers because they tick all of the above boxes and more. In terms of equity release, the affordability of park homes is such that you can sell a family home, move to a beautiful park home site and have hundreds of thousands of pounds left over, money that can go towards enjoying a full and vibrant retirement, or used to support and help younger family members.
“With house prices rising and rising in England, we fully expect the coming years to see an even greater boom in park home demand from downsizers as they look to maximise the enjoyment of their later years using the bricks and mortar equity they have accumulated over their lifetime.”
Data tables and sources
- *Average park home price data sourced from Rightmove - Park home prices are based on a manual collection of current park home listings data.
