With the global trend of population ageing, efforts are in progress in many countries to cope with the problems associated with it. As one grows older, his/her capabilities gradually deteriorate. What need to be done to mitigate mismatch of dwelling design, and to enable age-in-place? A comparative study of design guidelines in Japan, UK and USA is conducted to find out challenges and opportunities we are faced with. In Japan, design guidelines for the ageing society were proposed in the early 1990s, and they have been used ever since in several contexts. Although they were not mandatory, policy-linked incentives have worked to some extent. In the UK, Lifetime Homes concept has been formulated, and it seems to have gained momentum with its adoption in the Approved Document M. In the USA, Fair Housing Amendment Act in 1988 [5] introduced requirements on wheelchair accessibility on rental sector, and Visitability concept, less stringent than liveability, is being adopted in some localities. Although wheelchair accessibility is not the same as design for the ageing, most of the issues are shared. What are the problems we still face with, revealed from the survey? First is the time lag between acquisition of the dwelling versus one's senior years, which sometimes extends to 40 years. Second, many of the dwellings are already built with lower standards than desirable, not as new construction. Third, home modification quite often lacks financial support through government policy. This presentation will give some proposals toward improvement over the situation.