‘Downsize, make money and have fun': the retirees moving to the city

Times

14-06-2025

Claire Carter has been selling country houses for 24 years, and she's noticed a sea change in attitudes.
Twenty years ago empty nesters would downsize from a big country house to a village. 'They no longer move to villages, they move to cities,' says Carter, head of country houses at John D Wood & Co. 'They want something that's socially more interesting, with everything on your doorstep.'
The dream of retiring to a bungalow in a sleepy seaside town or peaceful village is looking increasingly out of touch. Retiring to a city, after all, makes sense. Public transport in the countryside is notoriously poor, waiting times for GPs in rural areas are terrible and the best hospitals are in big cities. Living near adult children is another draw. Cities are also full of life. Henry Sherwood, founder of the Buying Agents, moved a retired couple from Cheltenham to Islington, north London. 'Their approach was that when you retire you have more time on your hands to do the things you enjoy, so why move to an area where there is less to do?'
Older people also have increasingly younger mindsets. 'Most of my clients are older or retired age,' Carter says. 'And they've got Pelotons in the garage. One client, every time I ring him he's playing padel. They're more active, they're more social. It's so different now. It's a whole new life for them. So instead of moving to a bungalow when your health isn't good, they're getting ahead of the game: we're going to downsize, get some money out of this and have some fun.'
One of Carter's clients, the empty-nesters John Dryden, 62, and his wife, Louise, 52, recently sold their five-bedroom house in four acres of East Sussex. John retired from running his travel business in November and Louise has retired from catering. In January they bought a three-bedroom, 1,700 sq ft apartment in the city of Brighton & Hove. It has two terraces and overlooks a busy park. They moved in May and have a spring in their step. 'Moving back to a city, it's amazing, it's buzzing,' John says. 'We go down to the park, it's all families, people playing tennis, people walking dogs. Stuck out in the country, we had lots of friends, but you don't always see people day to day.'
'The first night we moved in here, we ordered in from an Indian restaurant, and it was delivered bang! Twenty minutes, beautiful food. Last night we had Thai delivered, we have a Waitrose around the corner, everything is extremely easy.'
The couple didn't want to be slaves to their garden. 'We've got seven tennis courts below us now, we're very active, we play padel … And we wanted the buzz: to get back into the bars, restaurants, theatres and exhibitions, cinema. Bring it on.'
They've got rid of one of their two cars. 'We plan to cycle more, walk a lot more. We're walking to the supermarket rather than driving.'
The average price for a two-bedroom flat in Brighton & Hove in 2024 was £314,400, according to Hamptons. John declined to say what they paid, but came out ahead financially from downsizing, leaving them enough to enjoy retirement and travel. They go abroad every winter and wanted a home that's easy to lock up and leave. And they reckon their flat is 40 per cent cheaper to run than their old house, but also big enough to accommodate their two adult children — and future grandchildren — when they visit.
Other retired people are opting for bigger cities. According to a 2023 study by Age UK, there are almost 1.4 million older people (over the age of 60) living in London, the capital's fastest-growing demographic.
A 2021 survey found a 15 per cent increase in the number of over-65s retiring to inner London in the past decade, according to solicitors Bird & Co, who used figures from the Office for National Statistics.
Over-50s made up 8 per cent of all people moving into London from across Britain in 2022, according to Hamptons and ONS. Leafy outer boroughs like Havering, Bromley and Bexley have the highest percentage of over-60s, but central areas like Kensington & Chelsea and the City are in the top ten.
Shaun Hargreaves Heap, 73, and his wife, Lyndsey Stonebridge, 61, recently moved into the heart of the capital. After their children left for university, they sold their five-bedroom house in Norwich, where he has lived for 40 years. In January they bought a two-bedroom, 960 sq ft flat in Bloomsbury for £960,000 from Greater London Properties.
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Hargreaves Heap, an economics professor, still works two days a week at King's College London, and his wife still works at University of Birmingham. 'I'm well past retirement age but academics really never stop working,' Hargreaves Heap says. 'Although there were work considerations, we made a conscious choice that we would like to be in central London because of what it offers in retirement. It's very cool for my wife to be able to use the British Library. For me, I can walk to King's, all the major galleries, all the major theatres, museums. And Bloomsbury has an amazing amount of green space, with so many squares. Russell Square is a wonderful place for seeing lots of people enjoying themselves.'
They frequent the shops, cafés and restaurants of Marchmont Street and Lamb's Conduit Street (the Italian Ciao Bella is their favourite). And they walk to the Waitrose and Curzon Bloomsbury cinema in the Brunswick Centre.
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He couldn't see themselves retiring to the usual retirement enclaves. 'In a seaside village, you just don't have theatres, galleries and museums. As you get older, you sort of appreciate the ability to see what the human species is capable of.'
George McKerracher, 65, and his wife, Di, 60 have always been city people. George retired ten years ago from his job as a senior director at Asda, and Di two years ago as chair of a health company. Until recently, they lived in a three-bedroom 1,800 sq ft penthouse with a terrace in the centre of Leeds (it's now for sale for £1.095 million with Zenko City Living).
To be closer to family, they've bought a three-bedroom duplex in a listed townhouse in the West End of Glasgow, for which they paid over £800,000. 'Glasgow is a fantastic city,' George says. 'In the West End, the university is there, the botanic gardens, it's a cultural hotspot, with all the restaurants, coffee shops, cinemas. Di and I have breakfast out three times a week. The only thing is it rains 100 days a year, but the airport is a 20-minute Uber ride away.'
Why not retire to a peaceful village? 'We're not ready for that. We're still youngsters at heart. We are very active. We've got lots of friends. We walk a lot. We go to the gym three times a week. We travel. We have annual Bupa checks. I don't like the word retirement. When Alex Ferguson retired, he said, I can tell you one thing I'm not going to do: buy a pair of slippers. I identify with that.'
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McKerragher still dabbles in business and investing. 'But we'd had enough of the cut and thrust and have a whole list of other things that we want to do. If we don't do it now, when will we do it?'
Apart from crime, the case against retiring to cities is the high cost of urban property. Carter says her clients usually come out in the black because they are downsizing. 'Most people want to walk away with change, to help the kids out or put a bit in the pension pot, and cover moving costs,' Carter says. 'I had clients who sold a chocolate-box house in the countryside in three acres for £1.8 million and bought a terrace in Clapham [south London] for £1.5 million.'
While rural and seaside locations are still the most popular overall for retirees, the retirement home industry is noticing a shift in sentiment. James Lloyd, Director of Policy at Associated Retirement Community Operators, said: 'Integrated Retirement Community operators are responding, with a new trend toward urban developments clearly observable in places like London, Chester and Bristol. While country locations remain popular, we think that in ten years, there will be an Integrated Retirement Community in every town centre.'
It's a far cry from the old days. 'Back then, every bungalow that came on the market, you knew who you were selling to,' Carter recalls. 'If I said to some of my clients now, here's a bungalow, they'd laugh at me. That's not what they're looking for. They want something modern, interesting, with more life going on. They're not just downsizing, waiting for the end.'