85% of homeowners would swap their property to return to their childhood home

The latest research by lettings and estate agent, Benham and Reeves, has revealed that while the majority of UK homeowners believe they’ve found their dream home, 85% of them would house swap in a heartbeat if it meant returning to their childhood home.

The survey of UK homeowners commissioned by Benham and Reeves found that 57% believe they’ve climbed the ladder to reach what they consider to be their dream home. But while this may be the case, it seems that some could be tempted into a house swap depending on what was on offer.

In fact, Benham and Reeves found that 85% of those surveyed would happily swap their current home if it meant they could return to their childhood home. 36% would also jump at the chance of a house swap if it meant ditching the UK for their favourite foreign country or holiday destination.

While no one truly knows what the future holds, 28% also stated that they would take the risk and swap their current home for a house in the future.

However, just 15% would be willing to house swap in order to return to a previous period in history, while just 8% would like to swap their current home to live in a house, or on the street, from their favourite TV show.

Director of Benham and Reeves, Marc von Grundherr, commented:

“Our childhood home tends to form our first bricks and mortar memories and for most, these memories are fond ones of times spent with loved ones.

So despite the majority of UK homeowners believing they have found their dream home in the current market, it’s hardly surprising that a high percentage of them would give it up to return to their family home from yesteryear.

It’s not unheard of for such an occurrence to actually happen, neither is a move abroad particularly out of the ordinary, but the desire to trade in a modern day home and gamble on a home of the future is perhaps more bizarre.”

Survey of 1,017 UK homeowners carried out by ProperPR on behalf of Benham and Reeves via consumer research platform Find Out Now (17th February 2023).