The average over-65 homeowner has seen property wealth gains worth £159,000, the equivalent of £7,000 per year in the 23 years they have owned their home, according to analysis from Key Retirement.

Its research found that over-65s in London have been the biggest winners with property prices rising by £394,944 over the 27 years they have on average owned their homes – equivalent to £14,257 a year.

Homeowners in the South East (21 years) are more than £230,000 better off from buying a property while over-65s in East Anglia (18 years) have seen gains of £206,000 during the average time they have owned their current home.

All areas of the country have recorded strong gains. Total property wealth owned by over-65s who have paid off their mortgages is near a record high of £1.09 trillion, Key’s Pensioner Property Equity Index reveals.

These gains are helping deliver a major boost to retirement standards of living as the equity release market expands with customers releasing an average £77,380 of property wealth and nearly £134,000 in London and £91,000 in the South East.

Dean Mirfin, chief product officer at Key Retirement, said: “The long-term strength of the housing market is demonstrated by the fact that on average over-65s are making nearly £7,000 annually from their homes rising to more than £14,000 a year in London.

“Property wealth of more than £1 trillion enables pensioners who have paid off mortgages to generate returns which are making a huge contribution to their standard of living in retirement. They are also helping family and friends with 26% of equity release customers saying they used some of the proceeds as financial gifts.

“That is feeding through to rapid expansion of the equity release market and underlines why thousands are using their property wealth to transform their own and their families finances.”