Happy senior couple of clients meeting with real estate agent, shaking hands with realtor and thanking for consultation

“We’ll lend up to 70% loan-to-value with sale and downsize as the only exit strategy. We strip away as many of the criteria that you find with certainly some of the bigger lenders ... There’s no minimum income”

Darren Deacon, Family Building Society

“Through education and working with other lenders, we can grow the market and grow broker awareness – it’s a win-win. It’s a win for the customer… a win for brokers… and a win for lenders”

Leon Diamond, LiveMore Capital

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Later life lending boom: Why older borrowers deserve better broker advice

Brokers are ‘sitting on a gold mine’ – but they’re still not fully aware of the opportunities in the growing later life lending market

Read on

Darren Deacon

Family Building Society

Leon Diamond

LiveMore Capital

Industry experts

ESTIMATED TO be worth £30 billion, the later life lending market is going through a catalytic transformation. As life expectancies continue to rise and people opt to delay retirement either by choice or necessity, more and more individuals are choosing to take on a mortgage later in life. Research from UK Finance found that in the last quarter of 2024, 35,840 new home loans were handed out to older borrowers – a rise of 28.2% year on year – at a lending value of £5.6 billion. But is this growth sustainable? And, if so, are brokers taking full advantage of this emerging market? Speaking at a recent Mortgage Introducer roundtable, Darren Deacon, head of intermediary sales at the Family Building Society, said he believes this trend reflects early signs of economic recovery – positive news for both borrowers and brokers if they take the bait. “The ‘green shoots’ are there. We know that people are living longer and that [they] want to live their lives differently to previous generations,” he added. “So we believe there’s a massive opportunity in this space.”

Leon Diamond, CEO and founder of LiveMore Captial, echoed Deacon’s concerns. However, he was also quick to point out that brokers are “sitting on a gold mine”. As he told Mortgage Introducer, there are billions of interest-only mortgages coming up for expiry – and most of those customers are in the over-50s market. “[It’s about] speaking to brokers and helping them realise that there are opportunities here. There’s a customer base that’s underserved and really needs more options – we’re here to solve that.” To facilitate this, Diamond explained that LiveMore is harnessing the power of emerging technology to drive efficiency in branding, getting its voice heard in the market and, most importantly, educating brokers in this space – which he believes is failing due to database shortcomings. “A lot of sourcing systems in later life aren’t fit for purpose,” he said. “They’re guiding brokers down a specific product rather than solving the customer’s needs. And that’s where we see the power of the LiveMore Mortgage Match – it helps brokers see options outside of the [traditional] silos.”

However, it’s not all been plain sailing. Deacon sees the biggest challenge as one highlighted in the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) 2023 report, which raised concerns about the quality of advice given to later life borrowers. “Many brokers are not fully aware of the options that are available, so it’s understandable that customers are even less aware,” Deacon said. “Most 50- to 90-year-olds don’t believe they can get a mortgage. They simply think that equity release is their only option. The other challenge I see is that advisers can be siloed in their approach. Some will only consider lifetime mortgages; some will only consider standard later life mortgages. Holistic advice has got to be uppermost in the adviser’s advice trail.”

“Customers have just as complex needs as they do in any form of underwriting, not specifically just in later life lending,” Deacon added. “They’ll have their own relationship breakdowns, the lasting effects of COVID, the cost of living crisis that we’ve gone through. But [now] people want to live

“They need a solution now that their time is coming up,” Deacon said. “Brokers will come to us with a thought in mind, but we might be able to steer that away a couple of degrees or so to get the right solution: what is right for us and, more importantly, what is right for the customer.” Retirement interest-only (RIO) mortgages were expected to be a game changer when introduced by the FCA in 2018. However, as Deacon noted, RIOs are not the silver bullet that they were first envisioned to be. The initial expectation was that 21,000 RIOs would be sold annually by 2021, but in reality, “finance figures show, on average, just in the last year alone, around 300 a quarter were being sold – certainly nowhere near that 21,000 a year”. In response, the Family Building Society has focused on alternative lending criteria – which go way beyond traditional box-ticking protocols. “We have interest-only criteria, which I believe is a strong alternative to RIO,” Deacon said. “We’ll lend up to 70% loan-to-value with sale and downsize as the only exit strategy. We strip away as many of the criteria that you find with certainly some of the bigger lenders ... There’s no minimum income. We assess the income as it is and can look at a wide variety of income streams.”

In Diamond’s view, a significant number of borrowers require more tailored solutions – solutions that fit around their particular life obstacles and avoid the ‘one size fits all’ trap. “There’s a huge demographic of people who need a mortgage – there’s £150 billion of interest-only mortgages coming up for expiry,” he pointed out. “These customers typically haven’t paid down their mortgage and, for a number of reasons, don’t want to be paying off their house. They may not want to draw the money out of their pension pot and [incur] taxable consequences. They also may not want to downsize.” Diamond explained that LiveMore has a holistic fact-finder that takes into account a wide set of circumstances – adding that the company's early adoption of AI has, once again, opened up a whole new world of streamlined, efficient underwriting.

Looking to the future of the later life market, Deacon doubled down on its growth potential and the wealth of opportunities it presents – which he believes more brokers should be seizing upon. “We know that people are living to later years. There’s currently 21 million over-55s in the UK, and that’s set to rise to 24 million by 2030 – it’s a growing demographic. The market is only going to get bigger. There’s over £2 trillion worth of equity in the over-65s. Seventy-eight per cent of all housing wealth is owned by the over-50s. It’s a huge market; the opportunity is there.”

However, there are still some obstacles to manoeuvre around, with many borrowers still needing proper guidance on their options. “[It’s about] moving away from the automatic-process thought of, ‘Oh, that’s equity release or a lifetime mortgage’ – there are alternatives out there,” Deacon stressed. “Education in the market is key; holistic advice given to brokers to show that there are alternatives.” Diamond agreed, adding that through education and personal development there’s a real opportunity for super growth in the later lending world – something that will ultimately benefit brokers, buyers and the public at large. “Four out of five mortgages for the over-50s are mainstream,” he said. “That includes retirement interest-only mortgages. Through education and working with other lenders, we can grow the market and grow broker awareness – it’s a win-win. It’s a win for the customer… a win for brokers… and a win for lenders."

The rise and rise of later life lending

35,840 new loans advanced to older borrowers in Q4 2024 – up 28.2% from 2023

The Family Building Society is the UK’s 11th-largest building society, with over 69,000 members and £2.5 billion in assets. As mutual organisation owned by its saving and borrowing members, over 80% of its borrowings are raised by deposits from individuals. The Family Building Society’s mortgage products are underwritten by a team who look at each case on an individual basis based on common-sense and tailored credit checks rather than credit scoring.

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Darren Deacon has worked in financial services for 35 years, with experience of both high street and specialist lending. Having worked as an underwriter, a mortgage adviser and in mortgage business development, he brings a wealth of experience to his role as head of intermediary sales at the Family Building Society and now focuses on advancing its business strategy. Deacon has a passion for delivering the best possible lending solutions and customer service to brokers through his team of nine business development managers and was recently selected as one of the Best Mortgage Leaders in Mortgage Introducer’s Global 100.

Family Building Society

Darren Deacon

With an extensive financial background, Leon Diamond was previously a non-executive director at Responsible Lending Limited. In 2010, he founded Mansard Capital Management, an investment manager, and Mansard Capital LLP. Diamond sold the latter to AJ Bell, one of the UK’s largest investment platforms, where he was appointed head of investments. From 2014 to 2019 he was a co-investor at Sellar Development Fund, a property investment venture. Key transactions in London included Canada Water, Grand Union House Camden and Seal House. In 2020, Diamond established LiveMore Capital, a purpose-driven organisation providing residential mortgages to the underserved 50 to 90-plus age group. In 2024, LiveMore’s inaugural £208 million securitisation became the first in the UK to include RIO mortgages, while achieving year-on-year lending growth of 140% and revenue growth of c. 300%.

LiveMore Capital

Leon Diamond

In Partnership with

Fighting for the customer

The customer owned a bank saw a huge boost after the Hayne Royal Commission. One year on and their market share is growing as customer continue to see their value.

Read on

Darren McLeod

Beyond Bank

Fernando Lemos

Bank Australia

Industry experts

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Bank Australia

Fernando Lemos

Beyond Bank

Darren McLeod

In Partnership with

Fighting for the customer

The customer owned a bank saw a huge boost after the Hayne Royal Commission. One year on and their market share is growing as customer continue to see their value.

Read on

Darren McLeod

Beyond Bank

Fernando Lemos

Bank Australia

Industry experts

Beyond Bank

Darren McLeod

Bank Australia

Fernando Lemos

‘It’s a win for the customer… a win for brokers… and a win for lenders’

Published April 7, 2025

5,700 new lifetime mortgages advanced in Q4 2024

343 retirement interest-only mortgages advanced in Q4 2024 – up 35.6% from 2023

7.8% of all residential loans in Q4 were residential later life loans

Source: UK Finance

Source: Key Later Life Finance

of advisers anticipate a rise in later life lending enquiries over the next 12 months

Later life lending enquiries on upward trend

54%

pointed to the development of new products tailored to older borrowers

35%

indicated improving sentiment in the property sector

34%

believe they have clients who could benefit from later life lending

87%

Established in 2020, LiveMore was founded on the belief that thousands of people in the UK – whether they’re 50 or in their 90s – can afford a mortgage. At LiveMore, we look beyond age to assess financial circumstances; we consider a broad range of properties and offer a wide choice of options to match customer circumstances. We focus on helping customers with mortgages specially designed for them, including standard capital and repayment, interest-only and lifetime (equity release) mortgages. We love helping in those ‘not your average’ cases, and we built the LiveMore Mortgage Matcher® to support intermediaries, so let’s work together to say yes to your clients. LiveMore Mortgage Matcher® is a registered trademark of LiveMore

Find out more

And the role of technology in shaking up market norms is only growing in prominence. Research from Smartr365 found that 60% of brokers believe technology is integral to the industry’s future, and 86% say it enhances the safety of the mortgage journey compared to archaic paper-based processes. However, that’s not to say that shiny new tech is a panacea for all the sector’s ailments – clients are still dealing with difficult situations that even AI can’t necessarily resolve.

‘Sitting on a gold mine’

“Each case is manually underwritten, but we do use the advantages of [using] AI and our matching engine to speed up the decision-making process. We’ve had nearly 4,000 customers, and we’ve had zero defaults. [That’s thanks to] how we underwrite our customers, understanding their different life stages; and [to] having one of the widest propositions in the market with very wide affordability.”

‘They need a solution now that their time is coming up’

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their lives differently. Some just want to work in retirement and some need to work into retirement.” One major issue is customers who switched to interest-only mortgages during the banking crisis of the late 2000s and never transitioned to a repayment model.

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