York has become a retirement hotspot – with bungalows and accessible properties being snapped up by buyers from outside the city – a council meeting heard.
And the city may risk becoming a “victim of its own success” as a higher number of older residents could increase the cost of social care.
Bungalows for sale are bought quickly – often by people from the south east of England – charity Age UK told City of York Council.
The health and adult social care committee meeting was discussing a project by the council in which researchers spoke to residents about what sort of homes they want to live in when the get older.
Outsiders buy in
The 34-apartment block is exclusively for people over the age of 60 and the price of a two bedroom home starts at £374,999.
Cllr Chris Cullwick said the city has become “increasingly popular as a retirement destination”. He added:
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Many would sell up in the south east in order to come and retire to York for all that it has to offer – its wonderful quality of life and culture.
Is that something that needs to be taken account of?
It could be that we become increasingly a victim of our own success in this area, in that York attracts a larger proportion of retirees and therefore in terms of the future cost of social care we’d be setting ourselves a bigger challenge.
“If a bungalow comes on the market it can be gone so quickly – and it’s often people outside of York.”
Vicky Japes, head of the council’s older person’s accommodation project, added: “That’s that’s not necessarily something that we can manage, but it is definitely something we need to take account of.”