Borrowers that will be aged between 80 and 84 at the end of their mortgage now have more than 250 products to choose from, research from Moneyfacts has found.
According to the data, there are now eight times as many deals to choose from when compared with five years ago, rising from 33 products in February 2014 to 263 in January 2019.
The number of mortgages permitted to end when borrowers are aged between 80 and 84 years has gone from zero in 2014 to 1,078 products today, as mortgage lenders scaled back restrictions put in place during the 2008 financial crisis.
The financial crisis saw providers introduce several restrictive measures to help manage their exposure to risk, such as reducing the number of interest-only mortgages and lowering the maximum age allowed at the end of a mortgage term.
Darren Cook, finance expert at Moneyfacts, said: "Over the past five years, mortgage providers have become far more accommodating to borrowers who wish, or may have no alternative but to extend their mortgage term well past the official pension age.
"The scaling back of strict criteria around the maximum age at the end of a mortgage must be a welcome relief for those borrowers who may have reached the end of their mortgage at 65 on an interest-only mortgage and have had few options available to turn to."
Mr Cook said the softening of the maximum mortgage end age appeared to be widespread.
He said in February 2014, 52 per cent of all available mortgages were permitted to mature when the borrower was 75 years old and over, whereas today, this figure stands at 72 per cent.
Meanwhile, the number of products that allow a borrower to be aged 65 to 69 when it ends has reduced from 923 products in 2014 to just 18 today.
Mr Cook said reasons to extend a mortgage past pension age often included releasing cash from their equity or purchasing a retirement property.
He said: "The scrapping of the default retirement age in 2011 now means that the official pension age and retirement age are no longer one and the same and employees can choose to work beyond the pension age for reasons other than financial need.
"With this trend looking to continue as many of us retire later, older borrowers will welcome this extra choice."
Patrick Connolly, chartered financial planner at Chase de Vere, said: "Mortgage providers need to manage risks but they also have to adapt to the wider economic and social environment.
"Gone are the days when people simply took out a 25 year mortgage when they were in their twenties and benefited from rising house prices which helped them to pay this off.
"It’s now much harder to get on the housing ladder, people have more career fluctuations and work to an older age and a lack of planning and later-life divorces can also hit their financial plans, meaning there is a greater need for people to have mortgages as they move into retirement."
