New research has revealed just how much money residents in Manchester could potentially save from downsizing their house this year.
As homeowners edge closer to retirement and start to think about long-term financial security, downsizing to a home more suited to their needs is often near the top of the list of considerations.
Especially as older children may have flown the nest too and they tend to find themselves with a home that’s much larger than they need, moving somewhere a little smaller could end up freeing up hundreds of thousands of pounds to put towards retirement funds.
But, just how much money on average could Manchester homeowners be potentially be looking at saving?
In order to find this out for each of the UK’s most populated towns and cities, PensionBee took the average asking price of one, two, three, four and five-bedroom properties and calculated the price difference between each, as well as taking an average of these four saving figures.
The research revealed that Manchester ranked in 11th place in the UK and that residents could save an average of £103,175 when downsizing in the area.
More specifically, you can save up to £314,552 by downsizing from a five bedroom house to a three bedroom house, and £98,146 by moving from a three bedroom house to a one bedroom house.
The research also revealed that now could be one of the best times to downsize this year.
Discussing the research findings for 2020, Romi Savova – CEO at PensionBee – said: “Our research shows the considerable amount of money that could be tied up in your home [and] given the stamp duty holiday, there’s arguably been no better time to downsize, especially if you’re approaching retirement and looking to grow your income.
“Increasing evidence suggests that the majority of us aren’t saving enough for retirement, and where it might not be possible to make larger pension contributions, property can help bridge the gap.
“As our data indicates downsizing could release a significant sum, right across the UK, so it’s something that could be worth considering if you want to boost your retirement fund.”
Here’s the top 20 UK cities where you can save the most money by downsizing:
| Rank | Town/City | Five Beds | Four Beds | Three Beds | Two Beds | One Bed | Average saving |
| 1 | London | £2,146,131 | £1,393,470 | £1,128,398 | £723,906 | £474,607 | £417,881 |
| 2 | Brighton and Hove | £863,365 | £632,964 | £481,756 | £360,653 | £236,822 | £156,636 |
| 3 | Bristol | £791,128 | £489,468 | £342,070 | £276,700 | £196,692 | £148,609 |
| 4 | Bolton | £618,523 | £369,597 | £195,606 | £133,004 | £84,049 | £133,619 |
| 5 | Bournemouth | £667,657 | £507,601 | £366,319 | £247,737 | £141,586 | £131,518 |
| 6 | Aberdeen | £603,785 | £331,739 | £195,130 | £129,599 | £80,528 | £130,814 |
| 7 | Edinburgh | £660,064 | £445,681 | £393,861 | £276,635 | £197,293 | £115,693 |
| 8 | Leeds | £572,264 | £395,867 | £227,274 | £167,157 | £116,242 | £114,006 |
| 9 | Sheffield | £527,825 | £348,063 | £193,109 | £141,579 | £105,929 | £105,474 |
| 10 | Portsmouth | £549,374 | £440,998 | £280,073 | £214,689 | £132,212 | £104,291 |
| 11 | Manchester | £570,409 | £344,853 | £255,857 | £208,888 | £157,711 | £103,175 |
| 12 | Cardiff | £531,337 | £378,172 | £269,094 | £193,468 | £127,080 | £101,064 |
| 13 | Nottingham | £509,946 | £378,716 | £224,795 | £175,878 | £120,102 | £97,461 |
| 14 | Liverpool | £472,717 | £310,644 | £178,205 | £143,983 | £105,963 | £91,689 |
| 15 | Reading | £542,222 | £422,053 | £344,374 | £259,948 | £178,562 | £90,915 |
| 16 | Birmingham | £509,764 | £372,092 | £236,528 | £200,296 | £156,227 | £88,384 |
| 17 | Luton | £495,998 | £411,158 | £286,255 | £200,874 | £146,803 | £87,299 |
| 18 | Glasgow | £433,182 | £302,186 | £187,953 | £139,144 | £90,917 | £85,566 |
| 19 | Derby | £423,393 | £327,623 | £203,279 | £135,381 | £83,932 | £84,865 |
| 20 | Southampton | £462,263 | £396,079 | £284,668 | £200,519 | £133,328 | £82,234 |
To read this study in full, you can do so via the PensionBee website here.