When the idea of moving to a smaller home is about black and white figures on a spreadsheet, it makes perfect sense. You can unlock vast sums of money — often in the region of hundreds of thousands pounds. Your heating bill will be much lower, you are likely to end up in a cheaper council tax band and you will spend much less time dusting and hoovering.

But when staring at the numbers we forget that for most of us, houses are for living in, not for making money from. A house is a home and that home is part of a bigger community where you have friends, familiar local shops, your GP, the park with that swallow that returns each spring.

Yet surveys, such as one from the property portal Rightmove last week, continue to shout about the financial benefits of moving to a smaller property. “Homeowners of five-bedroom properties they own outright could see themselves almost half a million pounds richer by downsizing to a three-bedroom property,” was the key line. “What are you waiting for?” it might as well have added.

Trying to encourage the older generation to leave their big and empty homes is not new.

“You’re old: those stairs will soon be difficult to manoeuvre down.”

“You’re in a prime spot for that outstanding primary school, do give way to those poor families scrambling to get their children in.”

But older people are not simply cash cows, nor is downsizing just about money. What something is worth cannot always be measured in monetary terms. In fact the dread of leaving your local area can be the deal breaker.

• Sell up or stay put? Your views on downsizing

According to the Intergenerational Foundation, a charity, 23 per cent of people asked said they didn’t downsize because they were too attached to the area where they lived. I’m not surprised. A sense of community is important, especially as you get older and tend to spend more time there when there is no longer a need to travel for work.

Contrary to what many believe, more space, not less, can also become more important when you’re spending more time within the four walls of your home. While your children may no longer need to hang on to their old bedrooms, if you are married, you might want more breathing space from your spouse because you will be around each other all day, every day. That spacious three bedroom semi might not feel so spacious once you are no longer spending Monday to Friday in an office. And you may want enough spare rooms so that grandchildren can come and visit.

Most houses have three bedrooms (40.4 per cent according to the 2021 national census) and according to the Intergenerational Foundation, many pensioners want to hang on to those.

• Ten alternatives to equity release

And let’s not forget: the cost of moving, stamp duty and the lack of suitable stock makes settling on the right property akin to finding a needle in a haystack.

If we genuinely want more pensioners to consider leaving their family homes, we need to understand the motivation for downsizing but also why people choose to remain in larger properties. Older people should not feel bullied into upping sticks just to free up space for the younger generations. Living in a community you feel part of is priceless and no one should be forced to give it up.