People over the age of 60 borrowed €75 million against the value of their homes last year, according to equity release group, Spry Finance. The figure marks a 30 per cent increase on 2024.
Women are more likely than men to look to unlock the value in their homes, according to the group, which has now lent €250 million to older Irish homeowners since returning to the Irish market in 2021.
Spry specialises in lifelong loans, where interest accumulates on the loan and is paid off only when the house is sold or the borrower dies. It does also offer the capacity to repay interest. The company guarantees that outstanding loan balances will never exceed the value of a property.
Spry, which is the retail side of the Seniors Money business, lends only to people over the age of 55. The average age of borrowers last year was 71, it said, though some were as old as 90.
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Half of all lending is to couples but when it comes to single people, Spry says women are close to twice as likely to borrow as men, accounting for 32 per cent of all Spry loans compared to 18 per cent for men.
“Issues such as the gender pay gap or career breaks mean women are more likely than men to have insufficient pension provision. Increasingly, some are using equity release as a way to create financial breathing space,” said Spry Finance director, David Brady.
Dublin accounts for 58 per cent of all its lending, the company said, although it has been doing business across all 26 counties in the Republic.
The average size of a loan last year jumped by 14 per cent to €112,000, Spry said, with the average in Dublin coming in at €140,000. In Dublin, women, on average, borrowed 37 per cent more than men.
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The company said women applicants tended to live in more valuable properties.
Securing money to provide greater financial security was the reason most often given by applicants seeking a lifetime loan, accounting for 21 per cent of all applications. A further 15 per cent cited “supporting pensions” which appears to be broadly the same thing.
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One in seven applicants said they wanted to release funds so that they could gift family members, mostly to help them get a foothold in the property market.
That was an increase of 40 per cent of the previous year. The other big increase – up 37 per cent – was people who were refinancing other debt, including mortgage switching, mostly from non-bank lenders.
Close to one in four borrowers were looking either to fund home improvements of build or buy property, Spry said.
