Dec 17 2008
In news which may be of particular interest to people who are saving for retirement, new figures suggest that equity release is rising in popularity in Scotland.
According to figures produced by Norwich Union, there has been an increase of 141 per cent in the market north of the border over the last decade.
The firm claims that it alone has dealt with a total of £115 million in equity release over the ten-year period.
Meanwhile, the average age of homeowners who choose to release some of the value of their properties, potentially as a means of supplementing their pension incomes, was said to be 69.
This is higher than many other areas of the UK and, according to Norwich Union, may be representative of a greater tendency among consumers in Scotland to save over the course of their lives, making them less dependent on equity release.
Recently, Alex Edmans, a long-term care expert for SAGA, suggested that a rising number of pensioners are having to take out debts against their homes in order to fund the cost of care in their old age.
