The Country? No, I want to stay at the heart of it all

Auriens is a very pricey outlier in the market, but kicking against this trend of homes for sale is a scheme in Bexley offering assisted-living apartments for private rent. Birchgrove is a development of 74 homes, with a restaurant, fitness suite and library, due for completion next year.

 “Our theory is that after the age of 80, the idea of buying a new home could be so overwhelming it puts people off,” says Honor Barratt, managing director of Birchgrove. “As a result they stay in their inappropriate and large family homes. If older people can be persuaded to rent, the move needn’t be so overwhelming.”

 You don’t have to get in a chain, pay stamp duty, complete and move on the same day. You can even move in for a couple of months to see if you like it, and if not you can move back home.

“London’s Generation Rent needn’t be the exclusive domain of millennials, it can be perennials too,” she adds.