Later Life mortgage lending increases by 2%

Latest data from UK Finance has shown that there were 33,840 new loans advanced to older borrowers in Q3, up 2 per cent year on year. The value of this lending was £5.2bn, which was up 9.7 per cent compared with the same quarter a year previously.

There were 5,830 new lifetime mortgages advanced in Q3, down 18.8 per cent year on year. The value of this lending was £510mn, which was down 8.9 per cent compared with the same quarter a year previously.

There were 306 retirement interest-only mortgages advanced in Q3, up 0.3 per cent year on year. The value of this lending was £28mn, which was up 10.7 per cent per cent compared with the same quarter a year previously. Residential later life loans in Q3 represented 7.7 per cent of all residential loans. BTL Later Life loans in Q3 represent 21.7 per cent of all BTL loans.

Adrian Brewer, Head of Later Life at Access Financial Services, said “The market should feel extremely encouraged by these figures, especially bearing in mind the series of reasons that borrowers have had to delay financial decision-making. The election, the Budget, the Bank of England’s decisions around interest rates and so on have all factored into making 2024 a challenging year for the mortgage market, and yet UK Finance figures have shown consistent quarterly increases in later life mortgage lending this year, which is great news for our sector.

“I expect that when the dust has settled on the oscillations of 2024, we’ll see a significant further pick-up in lending in 2025.”