Later life mortgage broker Responsible Life has broken through the £60m monthly lending barrier for the first time.
The broker, founded in 2010 by entrepreneur Steve Wilkie, wrote a record £60.2m in agreed lending in March. This represents an annual increase of 21% on the £49.9m of lending agreed in March 2021.
Activity in the lifetime mortgage market, which represents the vast majority of products arranged by Responsible Life, has bounced back strongly since the start of the pandemic.
Older homeowners are increasingly using them to unlock property wealth, solve cost of living pressures, enjoy retirement and help loved ones.
The total amount of lifetime mortgage lending across the whole industry reached £4.8bn in 2021, according to recently released figures from the Equity Release Council (ERC).
That was significantly higher than the £3.9bn recorded in 2020 — a year that saw the worst of the pandemic disruption.
Lifetime mortgages with drawdown facilities continue to be the most popular, representing 59% of products sold by all providers last year, the ERC reports.
While lifetime mortgage interest rates have been rising more recently alongside Base Rate increases, they are much more competitive than they once were.
Responsible Life revealed in September how lifetime mortgage customers had netted an average 41% interest rate cut in five years — saving them over £10bn.
Steve Wilkie, executive Chairman of Responsible Group, said: “You can put our success down to being straight-forward with customers and championing them wherever possible.
“But it’s not enough to say it, you’ve got to actually do it. Most recently we’ve been very vocal in encouraging existing lifetime mortgage borrowers to find out whether they could save tens of thousands of pounds by switching to a new provider.
“Since the turn of the century, lifetime mortgages have become a central pillar of financial planning for those who want to be proactive about putting housing equity to better use.
“In that time, rates on lifetime mortgages have come down significantly, removing one of the key barriers to popular adoption and giving many borrowers the chance to switch.
“The types of customers turning to lifetime mortgages is broadening out and plenty of relatively wealthy homeowners are incorporating use of lifetime mortgages into their retirement planning. That was rarely the case a decade ago.
“All this means the industry now stands on the brink of the most important moment in its 40-year history, the point at which it becomes an established and unremarkable option for retirees seeking to use their housing wealth in later life.”
