Survey shows more Britons accessing equity release in wake of pandemic

LONDON, UK; 25 June 2020 – A recent survey conducted by equitymortgagerelease.co.uk and the UK Care Guide showed that more Britons have been looking into equity release options as a way to cope with the current global pandemic.

A total of 984 respondents took the survey online on the UK Care Guide website between 1 and 31 May 2020, with a view to understand what attitudes were to equity release, particularly in light of the current coronavirus pandemic.

William Jackson of UK Care Guide said of the survey, “Over the past few months, we have seen an increase in traffic to our website for people looking to access equity release. We wondered whether this may be because of financial issues that that people may be facing due to the pandemic. We ran a survey and were interested to see that there was a direct correlation between the pandemic and the need for cash.”

Equity release is often accessed by people to help fund their retirement or pay for their care. However, it is interesting to see that 20% of people are now accessing the money to help others financially, which is likely to be a direct result of the impact coronavirus has had on families.

According to the survey, 26% of people looking to access equity release are doing so because either they or their family is no longer in active employment due to the coronavirus; and 54% said they would give some of the money to others – perhaps demonstrating that people are looking to access the value in their homes to share it with others who may be struggling.

James Lloyd at Equity Mortgage Release said, “The recent pandemic has shown that people are still looking to access the cash in their home. Interestingly, 20% of the people that responded said they were having to access cash to help support others. This is a much higher number than we typically see. This is supported by the fact that 54% will also share some of the money with their family, mainly kids and grandkids. This shows us that people are looking to access the value of money in their home to support family members who may have lost jobs or are suffering from reduced income due to the pandemic.”

When asked how they will find an adviser to help them find the best equity release scheme, respondents overwhelmingly recognised the need for help, but more than half said they would start the process using an internet search engine.

Following that, people said they would be seeking advice before going ahead with 58% opting to speak to an equity release specialist who can help ensure that they are choosing the right deal for them.

Visit https://equitymortgagerelease.co.uk/attitudes-to-equity-release-survey/ to find out more.

Contact Details
James  LLoyd
james@equitymortgagerelease.co.uk
0333 210 0236