Home grown

The equity release sector is the perennial bridesmaid of the lending market. There is a huge amount of potential in the sector but it is yet to take off and is consistently overshadowed by sales in the rest of the market. Recent estimates from the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) indicate the market could potentially be worth £100bn in this country, but current sales are some way below this at 5% of total UK lending - a poor showing for a sector that has been in existence since the late 1960s. Actual figures from the CML found that £1bn was lent as equity release last year, £852m of th...