Retired homeowners have seen their property wealth grow by nearly £17.5 billion in the past three months, with the average pensioner earning an additional £1,200 a month, according to Key Retirement’s latest analysis.
Pensioners who own their homes outright have gained an average of £3,725 each from their houses in the past three months taking their property wealth to a new record high.
In the five years since Key started monitoring the housing wealth of the over-65s, in January 2010, total pensioner property wealth has increased by 14% or £111 billion which equates to £23,700 on average for every homeowner.
Retired homeowners in London were the biggest winners gaining an average of around £14,238 each in the past three months, while homeowners in the South East of England are more than £8,290 better off and pensioners in East Anglia are £8,524 better off.
Key’s figures show a fifth of all pensioner property equity is owned by over-65s in London with total wealth of £178.894 billion. Nearly two-thirds of pensioner property wealth is concentrated in London, the South East, the South West and East Anglia.
“The strength of the housing market is reflected in the growth in the amounts being released through equity release plans which are now an average £68,500 – an amount which dwarfs the average pension pot in the UK,” says Dean Mirfin, technical director at Key Retirement.
“The success of property investment for millions of over-65s homeowners highlights how homes are major assets which should be considered as part of anyone’s retirement planning.”
This week the National Landlords Association (NLA) reported that only a small number of landlords plan to take advantage of pension reforms to expand their property portfolio.
The NLA reports that of its members with a pension in place, just 5% are planning to take advantage of the changes, which allow people to withdraw a lump sum of their pension at 55.
Some 14% of those surveyed said they would consider taking advantage of pension freedoms, while 11% said they didn’t have enough of a pension to withdraw a lump sum.
A small number of landlords (7%) said they had other plans for their funds, and 19% told the NLA they were still undecided about whether to make use of the reforms.
