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19 February 2024

Please find some commentary on the UK Finance quarterly insight into later life mortgage lending to borrowers age 55+, from Simon Webb at LiveMore, the mortgage lender for the 50 to 90+ age group.

Simon Webb, managing director of capital markets and finance at LiveMore, commented: “It is indicative of our still-turbulent market that, despite an ageing population and an increase of later life mortgage products available, we’re seeing this sharp decrease of 37% in loans to older borrowers in Q4 2023 compared to the same quarter in 2022. That said, borrowing was unusually high following the 23 September 2022 Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) increase to thresholds, when the over-55s realised they could tap into the equity in their property.

“When we see these types of figures it rings alarm bells about the potential increasing number of mortgage prisoners in the UK. Interest-only mortgages can help mortgage prisoners who can’t meet affordability criteria as well as those with interest only mortgages due to mature but have no repayment plan in place. Without suitable products, these two groups of customers would otherwise have to sell up or pay very high interest rates.”