Retired homeowners' property wealth hits yet another high

Total property wealth owned by over-65s who have paid off their mortgages grew to a new record high of £1.072 trillion in February.

More than £7.66 billion has been added to the property wealth of the UK’s over-65 homeowners since November as the housing market continues to expand across most of the country, according to Key Retirement.

Since the firm started analysing over-65s housing wealth in 2010 retired homeowners have seen property wealth growth of 37 per cent - or £290 billion - which is worth around £66,000 on average for every homeowner.

Owning a home has been worth around £9,400 a year for over-65s.

Looking at the last quarter’s housing market performance, the firm says only those over-65s in London and Scotland saw the value of their total property wealth drop in the past three months. However retired London homeowners still own £177 billion of property wealth.

Retired homeowners in East Anglia saw the biggest growth in the past three months, and are now £4,265 better off while over-65s in the South East, Yorkshire & Humberside and the North East all saw gains of more than £3,400 each.

The ongoing strength of the housing market highlights how property wealth can make a major contribution to retirement standards of living as the equity release market expands. Average equity release customers are cashing in £78,000 of property wealth and as much as £143,000 in London.