The study found that Britons aim to raise £186bn from the sale of houses, with the average homeowners planning to purchase a house 36% cheaper than their current property. This is equivalent to a £57,400 sum for each household.
A further 11% said they plan to purchase a new home worth just half the value of their existing property to help fund their retirement.
In total, Castle Trust found that 3.25m households plan to use funds gained from downsizing to fund at least some of their retirement.
Sean Oldfield, chief executive officer at Castle Trust, said: “We know that many people regard property as a good way to save for retirement – in fact the ONS Wealth and Assets Survey has shown that 60% of people under retirement age think that it is the best way to do so.
“However, your home is not an investment unless you are willing to permanently downsize, which only 13% of the population plan to do.
“This means only about 1-in-8 people plan to access the value in their home to fund retirement and the remainder will be generally heavily underweight housing as an investment.”
