UK Finance’s latest Later Life Lending figures showed that the value of this lending was £6.2bn, an increase of 20.5% versus the same quarter in 2025. However, UK Finance noted that the year-on-year comparison was “inflated” due to Q2 2025’s drop in lending after the stamp duty changes came into effect from April that year.
Some 5,730 new lifetime mortgages were advanced, a drop of 1.7% compared to the same quarter a year earlier but a rise of 8% versus Q1. The lending value was £490m.
From a retirement interest-only (RIO) mortgage perspective, 323 were advanced in the quarter, up 5.9% year-on-year. The value of this lending was £31m, a rise of 24% on Q2 2025.
As a proportion of total residential loans, residential later life loans represented 7.8%. Meanwhile, buy-to-let (BTL) later life loans accounted for 20.6% of all BTL loans.
Dave Harris, CEO of More2life, said greater awareness of later life lending would boost its use. He added: “Today’s later life lending figures from UK Finance reinforce our call to make it mandatory to signpost all later life lending options, including equity release, to all later life borrowers. In Q2, just 5,730 borrowers took out a lifetime mortgage, with 37,300 loans in total to older borrowers over the quarter. Against a backdrop of 15 million people in the UK undersaving for retirement, that number should be far higher than it is.
“Lenders carry just as much responsibility here as advisers. Mainstream lenders sit at the heart of the customer journey too, and when a client reaches the end of a fixed rate, they should be pointing them towards
