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“That may come in handy when we get old.”John and Helen Murray, both 68 and owners of a linen shop in Leyton, have moved home for the first time in 45 years. Mr Edwards says that despite having to pay more, they had to find something that needs little maintenance They enjoy the security and the luxury “It even has a lift,” Mr Edwards says. After being gazumped on the house – now valued at £230,000 – the Edwards sold their home for £215,000 through a part-exchange deal with Countryside Properties.They are happy with their new, £305,000 two-bedroom, top-floor apartment at Countryside’s Stonegate development in Ingatestone, Essex. David Edwards, a 55-year-old local government employee in Dagenham, and his wife Christine, sold the three-bedroom terrace in South Woodford they bought 20 years ago for £36,000.

Many downsizers want to be near a doctor’s surgery, shops and leisure facilities.But moving to a smaller and trouble-free property doesn’t always mean freeing money. “And we bought another two-bedroom apartment in the same development for £170,000 as a step on to the property ladder for our two children.” Fairview also gave the Wolfendens £5,000 “cash-back” for completing the deal quickly.Figures from Population Trends, show 57 per cent of homeowners with no mortgage are 65 and over and have a larger proportion of disposable income to buy more manageable property in exchange for family homes when they retire. “With the cash left over from the move, we have paid off our mortgage,” Mr Wolfenden adds. So they sold the family home for more than £400,000, and paid £250,000 for a two-bedroom Fairview Homes apartment at Apsley Lock in Hemel Hampstead.The Wolfendens say they fell for the specially built marina that leads to the Grand Union Canal, the lack of traffic noise compared to their previous home, the large amount of space, and value for money. They wanted to stay within a 10-mile radius of Chesham, so their daughter Zoe could stay at the college where she is studying for A-levels.

“We were paying a large mortgage on a place where we didn’t need a lot of the space,” Mr Wolfenden says. Half of those who recently sold their homes through the company were upgrading to a larger property, and a fifth chose smaller domes to improve their lifestyles, release cash to invest in property and reduce or pay off mortgages.
Rambling round a four-bedroom house in Chesham, Greater Manchester, and with one of their two children at university, 50-year-old managing director John Wolfenden and his wife Moira, decided it was time to shift down to a smaller home. Size does matter, says Bradford & Bingley, the building society and estate agent. I hope it does not come to that, but it is a possibility which markets do not, so far, seem to have allowed for.w.kay independent.co.uk The writer is personal finance editor of ‘The Independent’. That would prolong the uncertainty which so many in the investment world on both sides of the Atlantic are yearning to see brought to a rapid end.In those circumstances, we may see trading volumes subsiding further, taking share prices down with them as happened in 1974. President George Bush’s hand has undoubtedly been strengthened by the results of the US Congressional mid-term elections, but I suspect Saddam Hussein will not be keen to engage in a war in which he is again a certain loser.The result may be a stalemate which could go on for much of next year, as Saddam plays the diplomatic permutations.

Mr McLeish believed terrorist attacks had no impact unless they fell within the United States, and the Iraq war, when it comes, would be a short, sharp replay of the 1991 Gulf War.I believe both predictions could be severely tested in the coming months. One sign is whether all the likely bad news has been built into share prices, proofing them against further disappointment, and I am not sure that has yet happened.In the present climate, the key tests are how well investors have allowed for unexpected setbacks on the terrorist and Iraqi fronts.This week, the Association of Investment Trust Companies held a meeting to examine the outlook for global investment trusts, led by Ian McLeish, of Scottish Investment Trust and Julie Dent, of British Assets Trust.Their presentations spent little time discussing terrorism or Iraq. That might be small consolation to those heavily taxed workers., thoughIT IS pleasant to see the stock market staging something of a recovery, but I still have an uneasy feeling that we are in for nasty shocks. But at least if the Government takes the money out of workers’ pockets and gives it to pensioners it will be spent rather than saved, helping to keep the workers in their jobs.