The unexpected cost of downsizing your home
If you have empty rooms, moving somewhere smaller could pay off. Here’s how to work out what you may have left after stamp duty and fees
ILLUSTRATION BY NINA KRAUSE
The Sunday Times
Last year Sue Wright decided she’d had enough of her three-bedroom home in south London. It was just too big for her. “I had three bathrooms, which was ridiculous,” Wright, 78, said. “Cleaning became a worry. A friend of mine had fallen down the stairs and broken her neck — every time I took the Hoover upstairs I would think of her. And I didn’t like the responsibility of having a garden.”
She decided to put her house up for sale and downsize to a two-bedroom flat in a retirement village in Watford. Her house sold for £695,000 in September and she paid £450,000 for the retirement flat.
Unfortunately, the move came with a bill of nearly £20,000. She paid about £2,000 to “give the
