The Stamp Duty holiday and Budget measures to help first-time buyers are the key drivers behind over-65s seeing their property wealth rise by more than £561 a month.
Analysis from equity release adviser Key shows over the long-term their gains have been even more impressive. Since Key started analysing the mortgage-free property wealth of the over-65s in 2010 homeowners have seen growth of 58% – a total of more than £452 billion which is equivalent to £90,420 per household in the past 11 years.
While pensioner property wealth has increased significantly, over-65s have not seen the same boost to their incomes with the average pensioner income only rising £12 to £331 per week over the last 11 years. Under-75s have average weekly incomes of £370 after housing costs compared with £302 for over-75s.
Total property wealth owned by over-65s who have paid off mortgages is valued at £1.232 trillion after increasing by £8.436 billion over the past three months, Key’s Pensioner Property Equity Index reveals.
That equates to an average gain of £1,685 for every over-65s homeowner – around £561 a month – with people in East Anglia and Wales seeing gains of £10,000 and £8,300, respectively.
The only region to see property values drop in the past three months was the South West where average prices are around £738 lower in the past three months. The South East accounts for a fifth of all property wealth held by the over-65s with the South West and East Anglia accounting for nearly 29% of all property wealth held by over-65s.
Will Hale, CEO at Key, said: “Over the last three months, the property market has been buoyant – spurred on by the extension of the Stamp Duty Holiday and the launch of government guarantees for over 95% LTV mortgages. That said, the market performance over the last 11 years has generally been positive and over-65s homeowners seen their property wealth increase by an average of £90,420 over the period.
“This puts into stark contrast the increase in average weekly pension income which jumped just £12 between 2010 and 2020. The retirement ambitions and needs of today’s over-65s as well as inflation make this increase seem even smaller and highlights how important it is for people to consider all their assets at retirement.
“Sitting in a quarter of a million pound home unable to keep the heating on or meet other day-to-day living costs makes no sense. Today’s modern equity release products can help people access some of the value tied up in their properties to address these issues and then through flexible features enable them to manage their borrowing by choosing to make ad hoc capital repayments or to service the interest if they wish.”