Fixed interest rates are the most important feature to lifetime mortgage customers, with 37% of respondents listing that as their top reason, and 75% listing it among their top three reasons, in research conducted by lifetime mortgage lender Pure Retirement.

Based on a sample of 800 respondents from among their customer base, the lender found that this feature was considered the most important by almost twice as many people as the second most-popular response, namely the security of a no-negative-equity guarantee.
This garnered 19% of people listing this as the most important feature, with 45% listing it among their top three.

The third most important feature, according to the results, was the ability to borrow more money, subject to availability – 12% put it as their most important feature, with 38% placing it in their top three – with the ability to port (9% listing it as their most important feature, and 36% putting it in their top three), the option to make optional repayments (9% placing it as their most important feature, and 31% placing it in their top three), and the ability to make regular optional repayments to a set level annually without incurring early repayment charges (9% claiming it as most important, and 30% putting it among their top three) rounding out the top six.

Paul Carter, Pure’s CEO, said: “It’s always interesting to hear our customers’ views about what they deem important when it comes to later life lending, and these results only serve to underline how critical rates are to our customer base, which tallies with the challenges we’ve faced as an industry since the mini budget last autumn and the attendant effect it’s had on the Bank of England’s base rate.”

“With inflation having dropped relatively sharply in recent weeks and cautious optimism around the BoE’s base rate potentially starting to come down over the coming months, the signs are there for recovery, and as a lender we’re looking forward to supporting applicants with a range of attractive lifetime mortgage solutions when the time is right for them to explore later life lending.”