Bungalows have to go up in the world to keep us on our toes

Peter Kay titled one of his tours Mum Wants a Bungalow and there’s an expectation that, when you reach a certain age, a bungalow (the word is from the Hindi) is the dwelling of your dreams. Forget the penthouse flat in the city, the country estate, even the two-storey family house, once you’ve got a Senior Railcard, you want to keep your feet firmly on the ground.

The first two bungalows in England were built in Westgate-on-sea in 1869 – prefabricated single-story buildings, used as holiday homes.

But it wasn’t until after the First World War that brick-built bungalows became really popular, giving rise to the pejorative adjective “bungaloid”, first found in the Daily Express in 1927: “Hideous allotments and bungaloid growth make the approaches to any city repulsive.” What snobs!

But bungalows are no laughing matter. I have many friends who live in them. They love the fact that everything’s on one level – including the garden. I also have fond memories of my Auntie Hilda’s bungalow in Sompting near Worthing. My three sisters and I were dropped off at her front door in the school holidays. We all slept in the same bedroom. Fairly strict Auntie Hilda could hear everything we said – and we could hear her snoring.

Many villages and coastal resorts still have large estates of Sixties bungalows, usually occupied – and loved – by retirees. The trouble is that, far from being unpopular, there is now a shortage.

The Telegraph found a couple of years ago that single-floor properties sell for up to twice the price of two-storey homes. And with the number of over65s is expected to increase by nine million by 2066, the problem is exercising statisticians and urban planners.

Now, if you have problems with mobility, a bungalow is perfect. And so it should be obvious that house-builders and councils should be constructing many more of them.

But one of the best ways of keeping mobile is not taking on an expensive gym membership, or signing up for the Tour de France. It’s simply walking upstairs.

After 50 years, my mother-in-law was moved from a maisonette in Edinburgh (where she climbed a steep staircase at least twice a day) to a flat in a care home. Within six months she could only walk with a frame.

So we need more bungalows, but we also need to reinvent them for the health-conscious elderly.

I suggest a revival of the chalet bungalow – the bungalow that’s not a bungalow. It has an upstairs – a loft room, with a dormer window. All sorts of bonuses there, for a healthy and happy old age.

There is plenty of space downstairs. And the loft room can be a retreat. Stick a telescope up there and watch the stars – or the neighbours.

But most importantly, it has its own built-in gym – a staircase! A guarantee you will stay upwardly mobile for as long as you possibly can.

My babyboomer generation are probably the fittest and healthiest pensioners ever.

We put on our legwarmers and did aerobics with Jane Fonda, gave up smoking, ate healthily, counted our alcohol units. And we’ve handed down this awareness to our children and grandchildren, so that half the girls born in 2066 will live to be 100.

That’s an awful lot of bungalows.