Housing and Ireland’s Older Population

It is sometimes argued that residential immobility on the part of older people results in the sub-optimal allocation of the housing stock. If older people remain in larger houses, then such houses are not available for the next generation of younger families. Similarly, if older people remain close to places of work after retirement, they may contribute to the limiting of supply in urban centres. The purpose of this paper is to provide an initial exploration of housing tenure and movement among Ireland’s older population using a rich data source – The Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing (TILDA). In this paper, we explore this issue in two ways. First, we look at the types of houses being occupied by older people in different household structures – living alone, as couples or with children/grandchildren. This provides a sense of whether there are, in fact, many older people living in houses that are large relative to their needs. Second, we explore whether there is much evidence of older people ‘trading down’ to smaller houses or ‘trading out’ of urban areas to more rural areas.