Bungalow building ‘crisis’ forces elderly to pay premium prices

By BRITAIN is facing a bungalow “crisis” as single-floor properties are selling for up to twice the price of regular homes.

An analysis by The Daily Telegraph highlights the extent to which shortag- es and high demand from Britain’s 11 million pensioners is affecting prices. The average bungalow now commands a 16 per cent premium.

Their inflated price will scupper the retirement plans of many over-65s, who are relying on being able to “downsize” to cheaper and more manageable bungalows.

Just one in 63 new homes built over the past year were classed as bungalows, down from around one in six in the Eighties, according to the National House Building Council (NHBC).

Figures from Rightmove, show the bungalow premium is most severe in the North East, where a three-bedroom bungalow is 62 percentage points more expensive than the average equivalent home with stairs. In the North West and Midlands the premium is 48 points.

In Merseyside the asking price of an average three-bedroom bungalow is £273,377, 107 per cent higher than the average three-bed home in the area.

Neil Jefferson, a spokesman at the NHBC, said bungalows were “land- hungry”, making them less profitable for developers who can make more money by building multiple storeys.

Lord Willetts, a former Tory minister, said: “This bungalow issue is just another example of the wider housing crisis in the UK. We urgently need a more liberal town planning regime.”

A spokesman for the Department for Communities and Local Government said it was providing £400million “to deliver specialist homes for elderly and disabled people, as well as putting in place new building regulations so more homes can be built to meet their needs”. Editorial Comment: Page 17