Owner-occupiers aged 60 and over now hold a record estimated £2.89 trillion of net housing wealth in homes – more than half of all owner-occupier wealth in the UK – according to the latest assessment of housing wealth from property firm Savills.
Those over 75 control almost a quarter (23%), with under 35s owning just 6%.
The ‘boomer’ generation is also unlikely to sell up and move: despite the age group making up almost half of all homeowners (44%), only 18.5% bought houses last year – just one in 57.
Homeowners aged 60 and over have a total of £60 billion in mortgage borrowing still outstanding, which amounts to just 2% of the total value of their homes. Those under 35 hold property with a total value of £600 billion, with half of that value tied up in outstanding borrowing.
Lucian Cook, head of residential research at Savills, said of the figures:
“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.”
Regionally, baby boomers make up the highest proportion of homeowners in the South West and Wales (49%), regions that Savills says are popular with downsizers and retirees ‘for a host of lifestyle reasons’. In London, just 38% of homeowners are aged 60 and over.
Owner-occupier wealth is highest by value in the South East, where over 60s hold £603 billion of housing wealth – 21% of the total amount of net housing wealth held by this age group. The value of property held by South East owners is £203 billion more than in London, and £171 billion than Wales and the South West combined.
Cook added:
“But despite many older homeowners holding on to properties that are now too big for their needs, there is little incentive for them to move during their lifetime…The provision of more retirement housing, along with other incentives to make downsizing more appealing are also 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.”
