It’s taken a long time for the industry to catch up with the facts, but they are finally able to offer people lending out with a normal retirement age. I’ve personally been speaking to lenders about this for years. The way I’ve always viewed it is why would you not lend someone the money if they can clearly afford it.
Lenders will most commonly lend up to someone’s stated retirement age of say 67. If you wanted to borrow for a longer term than this then they would naturally request proof of pension which is understandable but to then limit someone to the age of 70 or 75 in my mind is crazy. I understand that lenders need to have criteria that allows them to police the type of business they are getting on the books but surely if someone can afford a mortgage based on retirement income, then this is a much more secure form of income than any employed or self-employed job is it not?
It’s really good to see that 4 lenders have entered into this market and also that mortgage advisers will not need any extra qualifications to provide this type of advice due to the fact the FCA have deemed this to be a standard mortgage contract whereby a proper equity release mortgage that is repaid on death and has no defined end date where by ‘later life lending’ has a defined start date and end date which gives the mortgagor (the borrower) some comfort that their family will still get the inheritance that they expect.
In my opinion and based on the research that has been carried out this market is going to be huge and will really benefit many later life home owners.
Just watch this space…