Over-60s owner-occupiers ‘sitting on £2.89 trillion of net housing wealth’

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Over-60s are sitting on more than half (56%) of owner-occupier housing wealth across the UK, according to an estimate from a property firm.

Savills, which made the calculations, also estimated that over-75s account for nearly a quarter (23%) of property wealth, while under-35s hold 6%.

The firm estimated that owner-occupiers aged 60-plus hold £2.89 trillion of net wealth in homes.

However, the over-60s are not completely debt-free. Savills calculated that they have a total of £60 billion mortgage borrowing still outstanding – equating to 2% of the total value of their homes.

Older homeowners tend to make up relatively high concentrations of homeowners overall in the South West and Wales and relatively low ones in London, Savills said.

Lucian Cook, head of residential research at Savills, said: “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.

“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.”

Mr Cook said the provision of more retirement housing, along with other incentives to make downsizing more appealing are “fundamentally important”.

He added: “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.”

Savills used various research sources, including figures from HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC), Census data and the English Housing Survey.