The bank’s findings reveal that some 41,000 people, or 4% of all homeowners who will move between now and the end of the year, will become ‘downshifters’ but the same number of people are moving from the country to cities and towns. Four months ago, the corresponding figures were 6% and 2%.
Around 2.6 million Britons are currently downshifters and this is expected to rise to 3.7 million by 2007. However, Sainsbury’s Bank says that some people find that once they give up their city lives for a country living, they become depressed and crave for their old lifestyles.
Around a quarter of home-workers feel that their lives were more difficult and frustrating by not going to an office. For some people, lacking stimulation in their working lives can lead to depression, headaches and fatigue. Indeed, this has lead to the phrase ‘leisure sickness’ where people can become ill because they have little to do.
Lucy Hunter, Mortgage Manager, Sainsbury’s Bank said: "There is a growing number of people looking to dramatically change their lives by either moving from a city or town to the country or in the opposite direction. We believe that one of the factors fuelling this trend is that mortgages have become more flexible and with interest rates so low, ours now start from 3.15%, people have become more willing to borrow more and down or upshift."
