'Busier' mortgage market could boost equity release sector

An increasing number of homeowners may be able to benefit from equity release schemes in future, after mortgage brokers predicted a more buoyant home loans market over the coming months.

More than half (58 per cent) of mortgage brokers believe that their levels of business will increase in the second quarter of the year, according to a Paragon Mortgages survey.

This is the fifth consecutive quarter that brokers have predicted increased activity, although the projected rate of growth was slower than the previous quarter, when brokers predicted a 7.1 per cent rise.

The figures also reveal that just over a third (37 per cent) of brokers believe that business levels will remain static in the next three months, while five per cent predict falling levels of activity.

Ben Wilkie, editor at What Mortgage, has indicated that the situation is now more favourable for first-time buyers to build up equity in their homes.

"First-time buyers now don't have to pay the stamp duty on properties up to £250,000 … which is a couple of thousand which they can add to the deposit," he said.

Ashall Glover Financial Services are equity release specialists