The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors is urging the government to use the budget to persuade older homeowners to downsize, freeing up property for families.
It estimates that eight million homeowners aged 60 or older could be interested in downsizing. That has the potential to put 2.3m homes with three bedrooms or more back onto the market, it says.
RICS also urged the government to consider a review of inheritance tax, and to remove obstacles to the development of brownfield sites for housing.
