From City AM:
Homeowners over 50 hold three-quarters of the country’s housing wealth, according to new research from global property adviser Savills. These older homeowners, who have benefited from years of strong housing price growth, now own 75 per cent of all equity, with a total value of £2.8 trillion.
Not sure why they have such a low figure for equity, Savills reckon that the total value of all UK housing is £6.8 trillion and 75% of that is £5.1 trillion. This suggests total mortgages held by over-50s is £2.3 trillion.
Seeing as most over-50s will have bought over twenty years ago when houses were easily affordable, the original cost would have been (say) one-third of £5.1 trillion minus 10% deposit = £1.5 trillion, and in turn, just about all of this should have been paid off by now. So the £2.8 trillion is all second mortgages and buy-to-let mortgages.
Be that as it may, most of that £5.1 trillion is an unearned freebie whether people have remortgaged or not.
Debate Magazine
