Legal & General has revealed it intends to complete “up to £500m of lifetime mortgages new business” in 2016.
Legal & General has revealed it intends to complete “up to £500m of lifetime mortgages new business” in 2016.
This would more than double the volume of lifetime mortgages it wrote last year when the business recorded £201m of lending in the sector.
The group’s results, published this morning, said: “The equity release market grew 16% in 2015 to £1.6bn and is forecast to reach £2.3bn by 2019.
“The number of people over 60 years old is expected to grow by 6.3 million in the next 20 years, coupled with an estimated £1.4 trillion of housing equity currently owned by the over 65s in the UK, makes the long-term growth characteristics of this market very strong.”
The results also showed that Legal & General Mortgage Club facilitated £46bn of mortgages in 2015 up from £40bn the year before meaning the company is now involved in one in five of all UK mortgage transactions.
Meanwhile L&G’s surveying business completed 465,000 surveys, representing an increase of 96% over 2014.
General insurance operating profit fell to £51m from £59m in 2014 while UK protection gross premiums were up 2% to £1.4bn driven by new business and improved customer retention.
Nigel Wilson, group chief executive of L&G, said: “Our strategy is aligned to growth for our markets, meeting our customers’ needs and delivering socially useful products. We remain confident in the outlook for our business.”
Net cash generation and operating profit for the overall group were both up by 14%, earnings per share was up 11 % and the dividend rose by 19% in 2015.
