Housing equity is becoming a defining factor in intergenerational financial planning, yet it is still not consistently embedded within mainstream mortgage and advisory processes. As affordability constraints tighten for younger borrowers and older clients retain significant property wealth, advisers are increasingly encountering scenarios where traditional lending solutions are no longer sufficient.
In this exclusive, Will Hale, CEO of Key Equity Release & Air, explores how mortgage brokers and financial advisers can begin to integrate housing equity more effectively into intergenerational planning conversations, and where specialist input can help ensure suitability, compliance, and better client outcomes.
For many families today, the home isn’t just where they live, it’s where most of their wealth sits. Property has quietly become the strongest financial anchor across generations. And yet, for many advisers, it remains one of the least used tools in financial planning.
Clients recognise the need. Many of the younger generation struggle with getting onto the housing ladder – either failing to meet affordability eligibility for a mortgage or having to accept a high‑LTV loan resulting in expensive monthly repayments. Parents or grandparents often want to offer support but without damaging their own financial security. However, awareness of later life lending options is poor and even when advice is sought all the options available are sometimes not considered.
IFAs and wealth managers are often not confident discussing bringing housing equity into the planning process, and mainstream mortgage advisers are sometimes not familiar with the benefits that products such as modern lifetime mortgages or retirement interest only mortgages can deliver.
Advisers don’t need to be experts in later life lending to start these conversations. They simply need to understand when housing wealth can help, have a broad awareness of the products available and put in place a referral relationship with a trusted specialist who can be accountable for the regulated advice.
Why Later Life Lending Matters More Than Ever
Many clients assume that their home’s value is something to be beneficial only at the end of life, usually through inheritance. But in truth, its value can be far more impactful when used earlier, especially when supporting younger generations in important life stages.
For younger adults, buying their first home or moving up the ladder as their family grows is harder than it was for their parents. Even strong savers often end up reliant on high‑LTV mortgages with repayments that eat into already stretched net disposable income, slowing down everything else: pension contributions, investments, and emergency funds. This is the position where advisers can play a purposeful role.
Why Advisers Should Focus on Strategic Lead
Later life lending is an area where strategy holds the key to growth. Focus on being the relationship lead, the professional who understands the family’s holistic goals, identifies when housing equity could help, and then brings in a specialist to provide the technical advice. This approach gives advisers an array of benefits:
- Strengthen trust
- Deliver better outcomes
- Increase client loyalty across generations
- Stay within regulatory boundaries
The Key Opportunity: Strengthening the Next Generation
The most effective use of housing equity in intergenerational planning is surprisingly simple: helping younger family members secure stronger financial foundations at the point they need it most. Misunderstanding around equity release can stop families from using a tool that could genuinely be transformational. With specialist support, these products can be a safe way to provide financial flexibility to children or grandchildren whilst not exposing the older generation to unreasonable risk.
How Housing Equity Moves Between Generations
Accessing housing equity is a practical mechanism that converts illiquid property wealth into earlier, effective support for younger family members. The challenge is getting both customers and advisers to recognise when that mechanism could be a suitable option.
Example Scenario in Real Time Rates
Consider parents in their 60s with a £900,000 mortgage-free property. Their child, ready to buy their first home, is restricted to a 100% LTV mortgage, leaving her with high monthly repayments and limited ability to maintain pension contributions. The result is a monthly repayment of £1, 491 , limiting her ability to upkeep pension contributions, due to pressure on her affordability.
If she was advised for a regulated later life lending solution, by accessing a portion of their housing equity, her parents would have the option to offer a deposit, reducing her borrowing to 60% LTV. As a result, this lowers her monthly repayments to a far more manageable £793.
The reduction savings would amount to more than £16,500, over the initial two fixed periods alone. This money could be directed instead towards financial flexibility plans, long-term financial resilience support, and support for rising living costs.
The adviser pinpoints the need and defines the overall strategy. A regulated specialist then analyses suitability for the parents, making sure the lending is structured appropriately and delivers the intended benefits for the wider family.
A Practical Framework for Advisers
Advisers should consider raising the topic for all customers over the age of 55 through the annual review process, but also when clients specifically communicate a desire to support children financially, or if younger family members are constrained by high LTV borrowing. If liquid assets are insufficient or earmarked for retirement, or if there is significant, underused property wealth, then later life lending options may be appropriate.
What the Specialist Does
The specialist’s role revolves around suitability, affordability and long‑term needs.
- Structure the lending solution appropriately
- Explain implications for inheritance, repayment flexibility, and estate planning
- Make sure advice meets regulatory and later life lending standards
The Key Insight
Housing equity, when accessed through regulated later life lending, is a mechanism that transforms otherwise inaccessible wealth into earlier, more useful outcomes for the next generation.
How This Helps You Grow as an Adviser
Intergenerational planning is one of the fastest‑growing areas of financial advice. As property-based wealth continues to expand, families increasingly expect advisers to help them coordinate decisions across generations, looking at the whole collective balance sheet. By opening the door to specialist support, advisers can broaden their value proposition, deepen relationships with both parents and children, deliver more holistic plans, and create natural avenues for referrals and future work.
Housing equity is a tool that, when used properly, can make entire families more financially resilient. Clients should rightly expect advisers to guide them, protect them, and introduce the right experts at the right time. That’s exactly how later life lending becomes a powerful, safe, and accessible part of modern intergenerational planning.
Sources:
Bath Building Society 2 year fixed, 5.20% – MoneySupermarket – 23/03/2026
First Direct 2 year fixed, 4.01% – MoneySupermarket – 23/03/2026
