Clients continue with home improvements and secured rates 1% below the market average

Age Partnership has found that their clients have remained optimistic about their plans for the future as they secure an average rate 1% below the rest of the industry.

Spending endless hours in their homes has done little to wane the demand for home improvements, as the proportion of our clients citing this as their main reason for releasing equity only fluctuated slightly from 25.76% in Q1 to 25.63% in Q2.

The demand for home improvements has also been highlighted in a recent study by Aviva. Their survey of 2,000 UK residents found that 85% had taken on some form of home improvements during the lockdown period.

And the positive outlook on the future was also evident in the volume of clients releasing equity for holidays. This only dipped by 0.8% over the last quarter, when compared to the first three months of the year.

Our stats also show that the average interest rate secured in Q2 dropped to 3.45% from 3.48% in Q1. These rates are good news for clients as they fall way below the industry average of 4.45%.

Age Partnership’s CEO Steve Auckland said: “We all had to adapt to new ways of working as soon as lockdown was announce, for us that meant asking all of our 170 client facing colleagues to operate remotely in a matter of days. This included continuing to record all of our client interactions so that we could continue to provide our gold standard advice and deliver the best possible outcomes for our clients.

“I am delighted that we have been able to secure interest rates that are 1% below the market average due to us offering plans from the whole⁠-⁠of⁠-⁠market, not just our own products. It is testament to the development in the product ranges and the high standard of advice that our advisers have been providing during these challenging times”.