Do you have a dream? What’s your dream? Is it to see out your twilight years in a home you own outright, having freed yourself from the shackles of the mortgage lender? If so, that’s a good dream.
Sadly, social upheaval, a rise in the divorce rate, access to easy credit and the growth in lifetime mortgages have all combined to make that ambition more of a pipe dream than a reality.
Yesterday came the news that up to one in ten over-55s homeowners across the UK still have interest-only mortgages. This means they must pay the entire capital debt off when the deal runs out. According to the over-60s property expert Homewise which conducted the research, the average amount owed by this group is around £91,000, with one in seven owing more than £150,000. That’s a lot of money to find in the run-up to retirement.
Now Saga Home Insurance, a specialist insurance provider for the over-50s, says that the number of 50-plus people living in rented accommodation has been rising for the past five years.
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