Equity release market improves in H2 but still behind 2019

According to the Equity Release Council's Spring Market Update, there was a 19% increase in new plans taken out in the second half of 2020 (from 18,420 to 21,917). However, in total new plans still lagged the previous two years. Over the whole of 2020, 40,337 new equity release plans were purchased. In comparison, 44,870 and 46,397 new plans were bought in 2019 and 2018 respectively. In total, £3.89bn of property wealth was accessed in 2020, down from £4.2bn in 2019. Equity release has been increasingly turned to by over-55s with more products now available on the market. According...