To find a town dominated by elderly people, it used to be necessary to head for Bournemouth, Bognor Regis or one of the other towns on what was cruelly known as the Costa Geriatrica of southern England. Not any more. The British population is greying at such a rate that some of the unlikeliest places are rapidly acquiring the age profile of retirement resorts.

Figures compiled for The Sunday Times by Knight Frank estate agency show that some of the country’s most rapidly ageing districts are to be found in semi-rural areas fringing large cities, especially in the West Midlands.

You would struggle to find a bowling green in south Staffordshire, a straggling district that stretches from Cannock Chase to the outskirts of Stourbridge. Yet over the next 10 years the percentage of over-60s in the area’s population is predicted to grow from 27% to 33% — making it the third fastest ageing area in Britain, behind Berwick-upon-Tweed (up from 32% to 39%) and West Somerset, currently the oldest area in the country — where 36% of the population is over 60, rising to a predicted 42% by 2017. Other areas greying rapidly include Tamworth, Staffordshire; Bridgnorth, Shropshire; Redditch, Worcestershire and Suffolk Coastal.

It is not that retired people are abandoning the joys of the English seaside; West Somerset includes Minehead, as well as the lightly populated hills of Exmoor; while East Lindsey, the fourth fastest ageing part of the country, has Skegness as its main town. Rather, says Liam Bailey, head of residential research for Knight Frank, many parts of the country are ageing simply because their residents are staying put and growing old — and preventing younger people moving into their homes.

“South Staffordshire, for example, is an area where the population is declining,” says Bailey. “Younger people are moving away while older people are staying on. It is a passive ageing population. There are other districts, such as Alnwick in Northumberland, where the population is growing older because people are moving in — the population there is set to grow from 31,000 to 36,000 over the next 10 years. But in resorts along the south coast, such as Eastbourne, where you might expect an ageing population, the trend has reversed. They are busy places and are attracting the young.”

Britain’s youngest districts, by contrast, are mostly in London — not only because the capital attracts school and university leavers from across the country, but also because it is a focus for immigration. Yet such areas are not getting younger at anything like the same rate as the oldest districts are getter older.

Those who stand to lose out from the demographic trend in Britain’s most greying districts are not just the owners of trendy bars and designer shops but young couples bringing up families in cramped accommodation who would like to buy a larger home. Having made fortunes on their houses and enjoying far greater wealth than their parents did in retirement, elderly people are disinclined to downsize to flats — leading to a critical shortage of family homes for younger buyers with children.

Experian, the information and data collection group, has identified a socioeconomic type it calls “Golden Empty Nesters”, who typify the “bed-blockers” of the housing market. Accounting for 585,000 people, or 1.3% of the population, this group continues to occupy large family houses, even thought their children have long since left, and have no inclination to downsize. The towns where they are most commonly found are Guildford, Hemel Hempstead, Harrogate, Redhill and St Albans.

The “log-jam” in the property market is demonstrated in figures compiled by Experian that show 11.2% of the over65s are living in detached houses — slightly more than the 10.5% of 26-35-year-olds who do likewise, and not a great deal less than the 17.7% of 36-45-year-olds who have the run of a detached house. Bungalows are still popular with the over65s — 24.4% of whom live in one — but there seems considerably more reluctance by older buyers to live in a flat. Only 15% of them do so — compared with 16.7% of 26-35-year-olds and 21.5% of 36-45-year-olds.

Separate research by Professor David King of Anglia Ruskin University, based on the 2001 census, suggests that even among the over75s, 12% are lording it in properties with eight or more rooms. The problem, he recently warned the government, is that policymakers have tended to work on the assumption that elderly people will downsize as their children leave home, and they become widowed — and consequently have underestimated the number of family houses that will be needed.

According to Vivien Aldred, of the Retirement Housing Group, which represents developers of homes for the over55s, it is not just a case of elderly people shunning dedicated retirement housing: they don’t have enough to choose from. “Historically, retirement homes in Britain have been provided only for the poor. There are a lot of crummy local authority sheltered bungalows, but not enough accommodation attractive enough to tempt wealthier retired people out of their family homes. What then happens is that an old lady stays in a four-bedroom house and gets lonely and depressed. She worries about it being broken into and lets the house decay around her.”

The private sector has built just 80,000 dedicated retirement housing units in Britain; fewer than 3,000 are being added each year — half the number that the Retirement Housing Group claims are needed.

“Some local authorities are opposed to retirement developments because they see it as ghettoisation,” Aldred says. “Another problem is the government’s targets for building on brownfield land. The ideal site for retirement housing is in village and town centres, close to shops and the doctor’s surgery.

“But with 75% of homes having to be built on brownfield land, everyone is after these sites. Retirement housing tends to lose out because it needs more unsaleable space for laundries and residents’ lounges, and because, unlike young buyers, retired people are reluctant to buy off-plan.”

There is one way to attract retired buyers to dedicated retirement housing: make the properties bigger. One developer that has prospered in recent years is English Courtyard, which builds upmarket developments specifically for the over55s. To call this “downsizing” would be stretching the term, however: two-thirds of the company’s output is in the form of two-storey houses, measuring an average of 1,000sq ft — a large enough footprint, as Carol Geddes, public relations manager of English Courtyard, acknowledges, in which to build a modern four-bedroom house.

Do you live in one of the oldest or youngest areas in the UK? Find out by clicking here.

Explore Property

• Buying & Selling

• New Homes

• Overseas

• Interiors

• Investment

• Gardens

• Specials

Times recommends

• Analysis: frustration for everyone - except investors
• Spanish property: why it's crunch time on the Costa del Sol
• Buy-to-let: professional investors cash in on the credit crunch