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It's often hard to downsize when you get older.
Apartments can be ££ bungalows are rare, it's a good point though that perhaps downsizing should incur less of a tax.
Otherwise the pensioner in a 5 bed is stuck with taxes & unable to downsize which I think is not what we are after.
My parents cannot downsize as apartments where they are cost more than their house will sell for.
My dad is looking into converting half of it into an apartment so they can make room in the house for others, it's not cheap or easy either.
JWestland
It's about value, not size. You buy a house, the value massively increases and you pay next to no tax on your massive gain. We are just about to levy a tax on every single worker including those on minimum wage but housing is left alone for political reasons. It would also be far better to tax people who are holding property as opposed to penalising them when selling/moving with SDLT, which means old grannies have no choice but to stay put in 5 bed mansions until they die
(Obviously I am biased as a 30 yo professional who can't afford a mouldy 1 bed, let alone somewhere I'd actually want to raise a child or whatever)
(Would also start with second homes and landlords and leave homeowners alone for now though)