An analysis of over 1,000 Key Group customer cases between Q2 2024 and Q1 2025 showed that this was an increase from 36% at the start of the period and shows that property wealth in the form of equity release is increasingly being used to stabilise household finances.
The report noted that discretionary use fell sharply over the period, with home improvements contracting from 14% to 5%, property purchases going from 7.9% to less than 2% and vehicle purchases falling from 7.7% to 3.9%.
Key Group added that gifting varied over the period, going from 5.6% to 12.4% before falling to 9.1%.
Debt allocation also rose from 2.7% to 9.1%, with holidays going up from 3.2% to 7.6% over the period.
Rachel East, senior director of later life advice at Key Equity Release, said: “Homeowners appear to be taking a pragmatic, two-part approach: using equity release first to secure essentials and ease immediate financial strain, while still setting aside modest sums for holidays, family gifts and other quality-of-life spending. It’s a shift from optional projects toward careful prioritisation.”
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Key Group’s data shows that average customers are 69 years old and predominantly female.
Application types are split between 50% joint and 41% single.
The average property value is £319,809, with the initial loan to value (LTV) at around 19%.
Single applicants tend to be women, with drawdowns also the dominant plan type.
Key Group also found that London homeowners topped the charts in terms of amount of equity release unlocked, at an average of £145,471.
This is more than double the UK regional average and up over £27,000 on the year before.
