Equity release plan sales surge by 21%

Equity release plan sales surged by 21% as the value of equity released increased by 30% as older homeowners released an average of £111,500 in property wealth in the first three months of the year, data from equity release adviser Key Later Life Finance shows.

Plan sales surged by 21.4% in the first three months of the year to 12,551 compared with last year while the value of new equity released soared by 30.5% to £1.399 billion – the highest on record for the industry.

The strength of the housing market meant the average amount released climbed 7.5% from £103,710 taken out last year and existing equity release customers benefited too. They were able to release another £373 million in further advances or drawdown highlighting how the impact of rising house prices has increased the number of customers using these flexibilities.

Low rates and increasing flexibility of equity release plans is driving an increase in remortgaging – Key estimates 1,789 remortgaging cases were completed in the first quarter which was a 78% increase on last year’s 1,005.

Customers moved an average £121,073 from an interest rate of 5% to 4.1% during the period and the surge in business meant it accounted for 25% of all equity released for debt management.  The rise in flexibility is demonstrated by the number of products available – customers in Q1 2022 could choose from 1,557 plans compared with 518 in the same period last year.

In Q1 2022, the number of customers (42%) using equity release to repay their mortgages hit an all-time high and is more than double that of ten-years ago (Q1 2021 – 17%) as people seek to manage their outgoings in the face of inflation.

Indeed, while the financial resilience built up by some during the COVID-19 pandemic has provided some people with a cushion, we have also seen a slight increase in those repaying unsecured debt from 27% (FY 2021) to 29% (Q1 2022).

Will Hale, CEO at Key, said “With headlines suggesting that the UK is facing a challenging inflationary environment, we are seeing older customers increasingly choosing to manage their debt using equity release.   Although being able to clear any borrowing before retirement is obviously ideal, with modern equity release products now offering all new customers the opportunity to make penalty-free capital repayments over-55s have more options than ever before.”

“It is this type of innovation that serves to meet developing customer needs and has seen Q1 2022 recording record numbers of plans taken out.  Nothing is certain but following a hugely successful Q1, the market in 2022 looks to be in a position to grow and serve more customers than ever before.”

“As an industry, we need to continue to rise to the challenge of supporting an ever more diverse universe of clients by building on the evolution that has seen huge growth in the number of products and features available as well as more choice in how customers access specialist advice.”

The number of customers using property wealth to help families fell from 21% last year when the Stamp Duty holiday was still in place to 15% in this quarter, but they still accounted for 19% of all equity released.

The number using equity release to fund holidays rose to 11% from just 1% last year when COVID-19 restrictions were still in place. The proportion of equity used to pay for holidays only rose to 2% from 1%, however.

Nearly half (45%) of younger equity release customers aged between 55 and 64 used the money to pay off mortgages but their mortgage debt is lower at £63,627 compared with £114,922 for those aged between 65 and 74. Customers aged 75-plus are on average paying off mortgages of £97,681.