The UK’s ageing population has generated contradictory policy responses. On the one hand, facing the lack of specialist housing for the elderly, older people are incentivised to ‘age in place’; on the other, to move to smaller homes to free-up family housing, reducing pressure on housing supply. This ‘downsizing’ discourse is presented as a ‘win-win’ situation which benefits older people and the rest of society. However, a survey and interviews conducted with over 55s in England reveals more nuanced patterns of residential moves, behaviours and aspirations than suggested by ‘downsizing’. Only a minority of older households choose to downsize. This paper looks into this mismatch between observed housing choices and the construction of downsizing as a policy goal. It suggests that theoretically speaking, the very notion of downsizing is problematic and difficult to define and is an over-simplistic concept which in reality applies to a heterogeneous group of people.