Play Fair on Age campaign victory on home buyers age caps

In last weekend’s Money section of the Sunday Times Anna Mikhailova reported on an important victory for a Sunday Times campaign to lift age caps on mortgages. The article cites that ‘every building society in Britain is set to review its age limits for mortgages’.

The Play Fair on Age campaign has been battling to assist the plight of the elder buyer. An example the Times illustrated was that of a fit and healthy 55 year old in full-time employment with a perfect credit history being refused a 15 year home loan owing to the fact he would be 70 years old when the loan finishes. With over 1 million over 65s still in employment, house prices continually rising and longer life expectancies the market must take a closer look at age limits.

The credit crunch played a major factor in the drying-up of capital for older borrowers; the seeds were sown back in April 2014 when the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) demanded a tightening in lending policy across the board.
Head of mortgage policy at the Building Society’s Association (BSA) , Paul Broadhead said ‘The growing demand for lending beyond retirement age required urgent attention’, The BSA also dismiss the suggestion that lender to older people is riskier. The BSA also look set to review the inclusion of pension income in the affordability f a loan, this had ‘till now not been eligible.

The Times printed several action points including:

All building societies will review maximum age policies

Mutuals will work with insurers to develop policies that enable lenders to mitigate risks relating to lending to older borrowers

The BSA will form a cross-industry alliance with other bodies focused on the needs of older consumers . This will include government and regulators and will meet regularly to discuss mortgage lending to older people

A range of mortgage options for ‘rightsizers’ and ‘last-time buyers’ will be developed

All these measures seem to be coming just in time, with many older customers facing barriers to lending. Back in July there was a case where a bank was reprimanded (by the Finacial Ombudsman Service) owing to her mortgage approval appointment being cancelled because she was over 65.

The Times campaign details appeared in ‘Money’ on 8th November 2015, the link above takes you to a snippet of the article-full article for Times members.