Over-60s holding over half of UK’s housing wealth
Older homeowners hold over half of the country’s owner-occupied housing wealth, Savills has found. The property firm has found that over-60s total an estimated £2,89 trillion, representing 55% of the total housing wealth, in sharp contrast with younger homeowners.
Those under 35, on the other hand, hold just 6% of the housing wealth in the UK. What’s more, for over-75s, that figure rises to 23% of the total. While over-60s hold substantial wealth, they are not completely mortgage free, accounting for around £60 billion in outstanding mortgage borrowing. That is equivalent to 2% of their total home value.
Savills also found higher concentrations of over-60s homeowners in the South-West and Wales, and relatively lower numbers in London.
“Over the past 10 years, debt has become a less important component of the growth in the value of the nation’s housing stock, with increasingly more equity concentrated among older homeowners and investors,” Lucian Cook, head of residential research at Savills, said .“The baby boomers have continued to build wealth, having paid off their mortgage debt, and Generation X has been working hard to achieve the same goal. Meanwhile, Generations Y and Z have had much less opportunity to work their way up the housing ladder profitably.”
Cook said that more retirement housing and other incentives to make downsizing more desirable are “fundamentally important.” “Such measures would help unlock much-needed family housing and equity that can be used to help younger generations get on and trade up the housing ladder,” he said.
Savills looked at various research sources, among them being figures from HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC), census data, and the English Housing Survey.
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