Housewares Business-to-business magazine for housewares retailers and their suppliers
Home really is where the heart is, according to the findings of a new survey from homeware retailer House of Bath.
Of 2,000 men and women over 50 years of age quizzed in February, 55% respondents said they would not consider buying a new house if they won the national lottery, illustrating that people have a strong personal attachment to their homes.
A further 60% claim it’s the ‘memories you make’ that makes a house a home, highlighting that there’s more to a house than bricks and mortar. And an overwhelming majority (95%) believe comfort is more important than style in the home.
Furthermore, when it comes to retirement, nearly nine out of ten respondents would like to retire in their own home, with only 4% willing to retire abroad.
The report takes a detailed look into the home life, retirement plans, sleeping habits and hobbies of the baby boomer generation (people born between 1946 and 1964) as they head into their golden years.
While men and women agree that the memories you make is the key to what makes a house a home, there are some gender differences.
The way to a man’s heart is clearly through his stomach with over half (52%) of them believing the smell of cooked food is what makes a house a home. A further 47% of men believe it’s your own bed. In contrast, women feel cosiness (58%) and warmth (52%) to be the contributing factors.
House of Bath managing director James Lowe said: “Our report clearly shows that this age group has emotional ties with their homes and are reluctant to give them up.
“With house prices 11 times more than the annual British salary and grandparent duties beckoning, these may have a contributing factor – but it’s hard to ignore the apparent emotional attachment that ‘Goldies’ have with their castles.
“These findings are also reflected in the buying habits of our customers, with most opting to spruce up their homes with products such as artificial flowers, garden ornaments and clever storage solutions for every room, rather than look to buy a new home after a number of years.”
Other survey findings include:
• 42% of ‘Goldies’ claim to have changed their mattress over four years ago. This timeframe is the norm with other household items including sofa cushions (26%), shower curtain (17%), carpets (37%), duvet (20%), curtains (15%).
• 44% of respondents believe stained walls are the biggest turn off when buying a house. Some 18% of men recount messy hallways as the biggest turn off – in contrast, only 1% of women think this to be the case.
• The south-east is the DIY capital of the UK, with 32% of respondents in this region saying they would undertake DIY.
• Nearly a quarter (22%) of this generation sees Downton Abbey as the most desirable fictional house to live in.
• The majority of respondents (59%) believe that nothing puts them off online shopping, with only 5% in this age group not shopping online at all.
House Of Bath is a homewares catalogue brand that aims to provide ‘stylish, unique and hard to find products and solutions for the home and garden’. The business was founded in 1998 and was acquired by direct home shopping company J D Williams in 2004.
