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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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| Failure: equity release | | Corporate Author | Joseph Rowntree Foundation - JRF |
| Journal title | Findings, D58, December 1998 |
| Publisher | JRF, York, December 1998 |
| Pages | 4 pp |
| Source | JRF, The Homestead, 40 Water End, York YO30 6WP. |
| Keywords | Owner occupied dwellings ; Home equity release schemes ; Social surveys. |
| Annotation | Rather than pay out Improvement Grants, the government hopes that homeowners - including those who are "income poor but capital rich" - will make use of the hidden assets tied up in their existing property. The Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) set aside £60,000 to be drawn down by its housing association (the Joseph Rowntree Housing Trust), in loans or a combination of loans and grants, to demonstrate how equity release could work in practice. The exercise proved a failure because of: older homeowners' reluctance to borrow money; obstacles to availability of non-commercial loans; and a limited role for commercial alternatives. The exercise indicates ways in which current constraints might be eased: a continued expansion of home improvement agencies (HIAs), which do deal with constraints on improvement of housing owned by those on lower incomes; and improvement loans which may be cheaper alternatives to grants. (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-990308203 P |
| Classmark | KEA: WQB: 3F |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
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| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
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