SHIP wants leading financial institutions to consider the provision of funding for the equity release market.

A number of key providers have recently withdrawn from the equity release market. Currently, there is not enough liquidity in the equity release market to support the high level of demand for the product from consumers, SHIP believes.

As part of this campaign, the equity release industry body and DWF, the full service law firm, held a debate on 26 November that brought equity release providers, financiers and interested stakeholders together to discuss this issue.

The debate concluded that the market is misleadingly viewed as not currently big enough for large players, but too complex for smaller players.

The vast majority of participants felt the market would grow in the future and believed that potential funders would enter the market, but were unsure of timings.

The debate also concluded that products ideally need some risk acceptance from the Government, while the industry needs to look towards pension and annuity funds as a source of funding.

There is also a widespread lack of understanding and clarity around the potential returns that funders could expect.

SHIP is aiming to target and educate financiers on the growing demand for property wealth based retirement planning solutions, and develop an understanding of the way in which how financiers could help the market to grow.

Andrea Rozario, director general of SHIP, said: “To kick off our campaign