Three quarters of advisers believe that equity release will become more important among over-55s driven by the radical pension changes due to come into force next April.
Research carried out by equity release provider Stonehaven, among 107 lifetime qualified mortgage advisers, revealed that 64 per cent now expect equity release to take off sooner rather than later.
Recent figures from the Equity Release Council revealed that equity release hit its highest quarterly level for six years, with a figure of £375.5m recorded during the third quarter; up 15 per cent on the previous quarter.
Early in October this year a number of experts told FTAdviser they predicted an increase in demand in equity release following the changes to pensions announced at the Budget.
A third of advisers would expect to see this happen by the end of 2015 and 45 per cent of respondents anticipated it would happen in the next three to five years.
Stonehaven said that reasons for this included equity release becoming much more mainstream as more high street lenders get involved in the market, as well as the large volume of interest-only mortgages coming to an end with homeowners having no repayment vehicle in place.
Alice Watson, product and communications manager at Stonehaven, said that at a time when mortgage lending is easing across the general population, those who find themselves asset rich thanks to rising property prices, but cash poor, are realising the benefits of unlocking the capital in their homes.
“We are entering a pension sea change and older homeowners need to consider their home as part of their pension pot to supplement the low interest rates and offset the volatility of drawing too much from their pension fund.
“With April 2015 pension reforms on the horizon, more advisers will need to become qualified in order to give holistic retirement planning advice. Hopefully these reforms while challenging will be the catalyst for more advisers to undertake specialist training.”
ruth.gillbe@ft.com
