Home owners aged over 55 are more likely to upsize or move to a property with the same number of bedrooms than to downsize.

New statistics cover moves to new-build homes only, and the size of the property is measured in the number of bedrooms rather than square feet.

The figures, based on a sample of 1,500 home owners aged between 55 and 74 who moved to a new-build home between 2010 and last year, show that 28% moved to a home with more bedrooms; 33% moved to a home with the same number; and 39% downsized to a home with fewer bedrooms.

The report from the NHBC Foundation also found that 40% moved to a four-bedroomed house, despite an average occupancy of just two people. The 40% proportion of the over-55s occupying a four-bedroom house compares to 20% of the overall population.

Many of the over-55s surveyed did not consider themselves as ‘old’ and believed they were decades away from requiring specialist accommodation.

The NHBC Foundation report is at Moving insights from the over-55s – What homes do they buy