A Nottingham mum downsized her home to pay £30,000 towards her sons’ university education

Sarah Able, aged 60, downsized her family home in Nottingham to put her sons through higher education. 

In March 2025, the family moved from their four-bedroom home to a two-bedroom Victorian terrace 20 minutes away. They’d lived in their family home in West Bridgford for almost 12 years.

The original home was sold for £485,000, with the new home bought for £320,000. After paying off loans and debts she’d taken out, Sarah had £30,000 to put towards her sons’ education.

Her youngest son had left for university, and the eldest secured a place on a postgraduate medicine degree. The money will fund part of their tuition fees and living costs.

She told the i Paper: “Supporting them through education has been and continues to be expensive and remains a priority for me

“The trigger for downsizing wasn’t one dramatic moment. It was more a gradual realisation that my life had changed, and my home hadn’t caught up.”

Sarah has a £30,000 mortgage on her new home, and she continues to work as a university lecturer. She also co-owns a business, Re.Dress west bridgford, which sells pre-owned clothes and donates the proceeds to local charities.

View over West Bridgford via Geograph Britain and Ireland under Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike 2.0

She said: “I am getting to an age where I would like some money for myself, but it is great that my sons got a place at university and so I need to support them.

“I don’t regret what I’m doing because at the end of the day both my sons are very hardworking and are carving out their own paths.

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“I realised I wasn’t just leaving a house. I was letting go of the idea that success looks like a large family home and accepting that life at 60 doesn’t need to look the same as it did at 40.”

When considering removal costs, estate agency fees, stamp duty, and conveyancing fees, the move cost her around £12,000.

Sarah found the practical side of moving far easier than the emotional side of feeling like “a chapter of your life has ended”.

She said: “The biggest surprise for me has been how right the decision feels. I expected regret and sadness but mostly I felt relief.

“If I’ve learned anything from the experience it’s that downsizing doesn’t mean downgrading. My new house is smaller, but my life feels bigger. It’s easier to manage, cheaper to run and has given me more freedom to enjoy things I’d put on hold for years.

“My favourite moment came when one of my sons told me: ‘Don’t worry mum, when I buy a house I’ll make sure it’s got a big garden so I can build you a granny annexe’ – I will be holding him to that!”

According to an analysis by Savills, there were 131,200 downsizers in 2025-26. The average price of the homes they sold stood at £462,500, with the average purchase price of their new homes at £304,150.

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Featured image via Unsplash