ABSTRACT

This chapter investigates how housing influences residential mobility throughout the life course, and particularly during the phases of older age. Assessing the relationship between housing and residential mobility is, therefore, not as simple as inferring future behaviour from past patterns. Housing is an important driver underpinning the residential mobility of older populations. Contemporary models of retirement migration assume that those who move do so to increase their residential satisfaction and conversely, those who stay are satisfied with their current home. The chapter reports on the recent migrations of retirees in South Australia and Northern Ireland and the importance of the geographical, physical and social nature of their old and new homes in this. The most commonly identified physical features of houses that negatively influenced retirees' experiences of ageing in place in Victor Harbor and Portstewart. The form of housing is an important driver underpinning the movements of older people.