Lenders cautious about equity release

After growing significantlyin recent years, gross advances in the equity release mortgage market stalled in 2005, it says. And new lending actually fell slightly from almost £1.2bn in 2004 to around £1,1bn in 2005, constrained by factors such as uncertainty in the housing market, fears of mis-selling scandals and a lack of qualified advisors. But recent data released from Safe Home Income Plans (Ship) suggests the equity release market is picking up again with gross advances amounting to £279m in the first three months of 2006 as opposed to £251.4m in the same period last year. And Data...