UK Finance Later Life Mortgage Lending - OSB comments

26 August 2026

Jon Hall, Group Chief Commercial Officer, OSB Group, comments:

"37,300 later life loans advanced in Q2, up 13.4 per cent year on year, is a welcome sign that the softening we saw earlier in the year may be starting to ease, though one quarter doesn't make a trend. Volumes are up, though partly against a soft comparator, with Q2 last year marking the post-stamp-duty trough.

It's encouraging to see lifetime mortgage volumes up 8 per cent on Q1, even if they remain down slightly year on year, likely borrowers acting on their own timing, whether a life event, a change in circumstances, or simply having taken the time to weigh up their options, rather than any single external trigger. Retirement interest-only lending continues to perform steadily too, up 5.9 per cent year on year, underlining that older borrowers are weighing up the full range of products available to them rather than defaulting to any one option. Both residential and buy-to-let later life loans slipped slightly as a share of their respective markets this quarter, down to 7.8 per cent and 20.6 per cent, a reminder that later life lending is growing broadly in line with, rather than faster than, the wider mortgage market right now.

Whatever direction someone's later-life borrowing takes them, whether that's downsizing, releasing equity, or simply managing cash flow into retirement, specialist advice matters more than ever. These are rarely straightforward decisions, and brokers who understand the full range of later life products are best placed to help clients find the right fit."