People aged 18-24 are more likely to downsize than upsize, according to a survey by Opinium for Hargreaves Lansdown, with over one in 10 planning to downsize.

Moving into a smaller property is often seen as the preserve of retired people looking for extra cash, but this year the biggest downsizers are younger homemovers.

Older downsizers

However, the investment platform also found that those aged 55 and over are also more likely to downsize than look for a larger home.

Those aged 25-44 are more likely to be moving up the property ladder than down it and 27% of higher rate taxpayers are planning to upsize, compared to 5% of basic rate taxpayers.

Higher rate taxpayers are also twice as likely to be considering moving areas, partly due to the rise of hybrid working among this group, which allows them to move further from work.

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Sarah Coles, senior personal finance analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, said: “The race for space is being won by the better paid, while younger people are starting the ‘crawl to small.’

“At the moment, with lockdown savings still kicking around, and some wiggle room in the budgets of higher rate taxpayers, some people can still afford to keep climbing the property ladder. However, as the cost-of-living bites, there will be plenty more who end up dropping back a rung or two instead.”