The CEO of Air, the UK’s leading later life lending platform, has urged advisers to grasp a ‘huge opportunity’ to help millions of homeowners use their property wealth to meet their needs and wants in retirement.
Speaking at Air’s annual Growth Summit earlier this month, Will Hale said advisers had never had a more important role to play in helping older borrowers make the most of their assets.
His comments follow recent forecasts suggesting that as many as 12.2 million1 people in the UK face pension poverty in retirement.
He highlighted that while over-60s hold an estimated £3.8 trillion2 of property wealth, total equity release lending last year amounted to just £2.6bn3 – a fraction of that total.
Giving his opening address at the Growth Summit, Will Hale, CEO of Air, said: “The over-60s are responsible for over £3.8 trillion of housing wealth and yet the lifetime mortgage market released just a fraction of that – £2.6bn – last year. So we’ve got a huge opportunity to help many more customers use the home as an asset to make themselves a more comfortable and fulfilling later life. This is arguably more important than ever, with recent forecasts suggesting that as many as 12.2 million people in the UK are facing pension poverty in retirement.”
Hale’s comments follow the launch of the Financial Conduct Authority’s landmark Later Life Mortgage Market Study in March. In the initial terms of reference, the regulator said specialist later life products, such as lifetime mortgages and retirement interest-only (RIO) loans, “could play a greater role” in helping homeowners “achieve financial security and comfort in later life”. The FCA says it will publish the findings of its initial exploratory work by the end of 2026.
Hale added: “The regulator has overtly acknowledged the role that property wealth has to play in light of later life planning. And through its market study and the work it’s doing on holistic advice, it’s made a firm commitment to make sure that this market is set up for growth. As advisers, you have a huge role to play in that, because never before has advice been more important in this space.”
Air’s Growth Summit took place earlier this month and was designed to help advisers grow their businesses and navigate a rapidly evolving later life lending market. Through a mixture of seminars, panel discussions and interactive roundtables, the advisers in attendance were provided with practical strategies to support business growth and improve client outcomes.
Hale said: “At Air, we're committed to helping advisers deliver good outcomes for customers and sustainable growth for their firms – that's the entire ethos behind our Academy. But it goes beyond that. We're actively innovating alongside our lending and conveyancing partners to bring products and services to a market we believe will grow rapidly. We're making sure we're ready for that.”
