Will falling house prices affect equity release?

People considering home equity release schemes should not get "hung up" on house price fluctuations, advised an industry expert.

Homeowners would be better off to ignore the month-to-month rises and falls in the housing market, according to Selwyn Lim, director of Mouseprice.com.

He said: "The guidance from ourselves and from government departments is to not place much weight on a single month's movement but to look out for an overall trend over a period of a quarter."

Commenting on the latest report from Halifax, which revealed a drop in house prices in June, Mr Lim called the index too "volatile".

Halifax released a house price index which showed that costs of houses had fallen by 0.6 per cent in June this year.

This followed from a similar slump prices in the month before which saw house valuations shrinking by 0.5 per cent.

For some people, the correct way forward was to seek out equity release advice according to Andrea Rozario, director general at Safe Home Income Plans.

Ashall Glover Financial Services are equity release specialists

Posted by Partick Ashall