Research commissioned by equity release advisory firm Age Partnership has found that 80% of over 55s surveyed have done something over the last 12 months to be ‘greener’, such as shopping locally, recycling more at home, reducing meat consumption.
Meanwhile, 5% of respondents have made substantial changes to their lives in a bid to become greener, things such as purchasing an electric car or having solar panels installed on their homes.
However, 75% of those over 55s surveyed haven’t heard of green mortgages.
When asked what they thought green mortgages may be the survey delivered the following results:
| The provider of the green mortgage only invests in green projects | 32% |
| A better mortgage interest rate if my house contains green efficiencies | 18% |
| A better mortgage interest rate if I plan to make my home have green efficiencies | 16% |
| Cashback on my mortgage if my home has green efficiencies | 6% |
| Cashback on my mortgage if I plan to make my home have green efficiencies | 6% |
| All of the above | 17% |
| None of the above | 27% |
Matt Stirland executive director of later life lending at Age Partnership, said: “We commissioned this study as we were interested in our target audience’s appetite for green later life finance solutions.
“The first part of the study was to understand the over 55s behaviour around being green, exploring the barriers, as well as the levels of understanding.
“The findings gathered from the study are being shared with our panel of lenders to aid green finance product development.
“With 72% of over 55s saying that it’s important to be greener, it shows that there is definitely an appetite to make change. We just need to make sure that green later life finance matches up with expectations, and we educate the audience about the offering.”
