A new survey paints a picture of low levels of Retirement Interest-Only (RIO) mortgage advice being provided by mortgage advisers.

47% of advisers surveyed by BestAdvice did not write a single RIO case last year, while only 2% wrote more than three.

The 72-page Later Life Lending report found that the vast majority of advisers who had written a RIO mortgage wrote only one or two.

However, when asked what their expectations for 2020 were before the Covid-19 crisis, 31% didn’t expect to write a RIO mortgage this year, a 16 percentage point drop compared to 2019.

Meanwhile, 42% of advisers expected to write more than three RIO mortgages during 2020, with 9% believing the number or RIO cases they would write would be in double figures.

Kevin Rose, editor of BestAdvice and author of the report, said: “The Retirement Interest Only Mortgage should appeal to thousands of borrowers who have an existing interest-only mortgage and no repayment  vehicle.

“However, brokers told us that rules around affordability and security of tenure were either putting people off or stopping them from being accepted for a RIO. Indeed, 44% of advisers believe the rules around RIOs should be changed.”

To download a free copy of the report, please click here.