Financial News

Over 65s Own Homes Worth More Than £1.33 Trillion

The value of homes owned by the over 65s has nudged up to £1.33 trillion despite a blip early last year.

The total fell to £1.096 trillion at the start of 2019, but recovered to £1.132 trillion by the autumn and added a little more by the end of the year, according to data published by equity release firm Key.

Since the firm started tracking home values in 2010, the value of property owned by the over 65s has grown by around 45%.

This represents an average gain of £75,000 in a decade.

Retired homeowners in the East of England suffered a fall in property values to make them an average £3,267 worse off in the year.

Property wealth

Better results were seen in Wales, where homes gained an average £11,700 and the West Midlands, where the gain was £8,165.

Will Hale, CEO at Key said: “Political and economic uncertainty hit the housing market last year but there were genuine signs of recovery towards the end of last year and retired homeowners who no longer have mortgages were big beneficiaries.

“Interestingly it was the over-65s in Wales who made the biggest gains – seeing the value of their property increase by nearly £1,000 a month – while those in East Anglia and the South East saw modest falls.

“While it is useful to be aware of market fluctuations what happens on a monthly basis is unlikely to alter the simple fact that millions of over-65s retain considerable property wealth which can transform their standard of living in retirement and enable them to address a wide range of financial issues.”

Home values rising, says ONS

Meanwhile, the latest data from the Office for National Statistics puts the average price of a UK home at the end of 2019 as £234,742 – up 2.2% in the year and 0.5% from an annual rise of 1.7% in November.

Average house prices in Wales were £165,735, £201,343 in the West Midlands and £297,714 in the East of England.

The Halifax, one of Britain’s biggest mortgage lenders, published data for January showing average house prices reaching £240,054 after a 4.1% annual increase.

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