Homes for life

Landlord Focus article, Issue 50

Scottish Housing Day 2025 examined how best to future proof homes to help people in later life

In September 2024, Scottish Housing Day focused on Homes for Life and encouraged people to think about how the housing sector can better support people in later life as needs and priorities change.

In support, SAL held an online member meeting in the lead up to Scottish Housing Day with Dr Cate Pemble, a Research Fellow in Dementia and Ageing, and SAL chief executive John Blackwood. They discussed how to future-proof properties; creating homes for life by making subtle, thoughtful changes that boost accessibility for older tenants and promote inclusivity for everyone. Members were asked to share their stories and we have highlighted a couple of those in our case studies featured below.

Our population is ageing faster in Scotland than in the rest of the UK, and as people grow older, their housing needs can change. This might require some simple adaptations to make homes more accessible, or technology to support day-to-day activities.

Age Scotland’s National Housing Survey 2023 found that:

• 37 per cent of respondents didn’t think that their home would be suitable for them in the next ten years.
• 20 per cent said they needed an adaptation to their home and over half of these had waited more than four months.

Many people don’t think about their housing needs or plan for the future and may not always be able to access the right information and advice about housing, or other support that is available. The Homes for Life theme wanted to encourage people to think about housing in later life and facilitate a nationwide discussion on housing needs and how to plan for the future – as individuals, communities, housing organisations and policy makers.

Adaptations, equipment and technology 

Simple adaptations can empower people to maintain independence and mobility at home and avoid accidents like trips and falls. Options might include installing grabrails in bathrooms or stairways, better lighting, or raising plug sockets to make them more accessible, or something as simple as painting rooms different colours that may help someone who develops certain visual impairments or a condition like dementia.

More significant changes could also be considered, like replacing a bath with a walk-in shower, widening doorways, or lowering kitchen units.

If you’re renovating or decorating anyway between tenancies, it might be worthwhile considering changes like this.

For landlords and tenants, more information about possible funding to pay for adaptations can be found on the Scottish Government website here.

Cate highlighted the need for age-inclusive homes. By 2050, it’s estimated that nearly one in four people will be over 65 years old, with many likely to be living with health conditions that significantly impact their daily lives. For landlords, this presents both challenges and opportunities; by adapting properties to better suit older tenants, landlords can not only offer a higher quality of life for their renters but also tap into a market that promises long-term stability.

Cate was part of the University of Stirling’s Designing Homes for Healthy Cognitive Ageing (DesHCA) project team. They brought a wide range of professionals together to design a virtual home that would cater for the physical and cognitive challenges that can affect people as they age and help support people to live in their homes for longer.

As Cate explains: “Our focus was on finding beautiful, practical, scalable and sustainable design solutions that could support people to live in their homes for longer, and our virtual reality ‘walkthrough’ home highlighted all the changes and adaptations that could help this happen.”

They had initially focused only on the needs of the individual, but after an elderly gentleman, who had tried the virtual reality headset, made a comment on bathroom facilities for guests in a property that had only an en-suite, they realised they’d spent less time considering the broader issues such as visitor access and social dynamics.

Cate went on to say: “This is why we have tested numerous reiterations of the virtual home with not just elderly people but tradespeople also, such as electricians and plumbers, to refine the design, ensuring it met the practical needs of aging individuals while also being comfortable and aesthetically pleasing.”

Cate draws on these lessons to help guide landlords and designers on how to make homes that are not only physically accessible but also cater to cognitive health needs, providing a more holistic approach to aging-in-place.

As a result of the university’s research, landlords can access a wealth of advice and resources from the DesHCA website, including its Designing for Lifetime: Tips and Tricks for Creating a Home that Supports You guidebook, as well as further resources from the university’s Dementia Services Development Centre. The research behind the DesHCA project emphasises the importance of thoughtful design, that not only meets physical needs but also supports tenants’ emotional and social wellbeing.

Cate wants to encourage landlords to think about how the housing sector can better support people in later life as their needs and priorities change and to also see this as an opportunity to widen the demand for their properties and take advantage of this growing market. Elderly renters can generally be considered a good long-term investment for landlords due to their tendency to stay in rental properties for longer periods; providing a stable income stream with fewer tenant turnovers and potentially less disruption to the property compared to younger renters.

The Designing for Lifetime: Tips and Tricks for Creating a Home that Supports You booklet is available to download from DesHCA resources here.

For more information about Scottish Housing Day and access to valuable resources, see online here.

Case Study 1:

Joan, who has properties in Aberdeenshire, has had to adjust to the challenges of living with poor eyesight in her own flat. “Many of the power points and controls are positioned either too low or in hard-to-see places, like the programmer for the towel rail in the bathroom which is located at the bottom of the unit. I have to lie on the floor to program it but that means I have to look through my glasses at an angle, missing the focal point of the lenses, and therefore cannot focus to read the controls.”

She also faces the problem of glare from bright lights, whether from LED lights or the sun streaming in through windows: “Too much white, particularly with reflective surfaces, is a nightmare for me,” said Joan.

“It disorients me – it’s like being in fog. I need contrast and softer lighting to see better.”

However, she also finds that dark colours in the home are not ideal either because they make it difficult to spot spills or dirt, particularly accumulated dust around sanitary ware in the bathroom. “It’s difficult to clean when you can’t see what’s there,” she added.

Joan has had an operation to correct her eyesight recently, but she says it is still difficult to see things that are not directly in her line of sight. However, now that one of her properties has become empty, she is keen to enact some of Cate’s age-inclusive recommendations when they come to refurbish the flat for new tenants.

Case Study 2:

As the population ages, dementia has become an increasingly important consideration for letting agencies. Understanding the needs of families with dementia sufferers not only enhances the quality of life for these individuals but also strengthens a business’s reputation and competitiveness in the housing market.

Gemma Beher, who co-manages Cathedral City Estates in Dunblane with her husband, Markus, has long recognised the area’s particularly elderly demographic. In response, she arranged for her team to receive specialised dementia training from the University of Stirling’s Dementia Services Development Centre.

Gemma said: “The training, which was spread across a couple of days at our office, provided insights that many of us hadn’t considered before, such as using specific colours to distinguish between floors and walls, or ensuring wall sockets are placed at an easily accessible level. The most eye-opening part of the training was visiting the show flat at the University of Stirling, which is specifically designed for dementia-friendly living.

“We learned so much about how to make it easier for people with dementia to continue living in their homes – it was really interesting and certainly food for thought.”

As Gemma and her team found, these changes don’t just benefit tenants with dementia – they can also benefit the wider population, as many of the strategies used to accommodate dementia are simply good practices for making homes generally safer and more accessible.

She added: “We have many families moving to be near relatives who have dementia or people downsizing to more manageable homes. This training allows us to point out features that make a property dementia-friendly or suggest potential adaptations that could make a big difference to people.”

Training in dementia design doesn’t just benefit tenants – it also builds stronger relationships between letting agencies and landlords, as Gemma explained: “We have very good relationships with our landlords, so if they are looking to refurbish their properties, we can give them advice on creating dementia-friendly homes, as well as signpost them to more resources, such as those available on the University of Stirling website.

“Having this level of knowledge means we are able to provide better support, and that helps us to serve our community better.”

This article was featured in Landlord Focus magazine, issue 50 (spring 2025). You can read our most recent Landlord Focus magazines online here.