With the changes to pensions announced in the Budget retirees have the freedom to draw out lump sums of money, as they may for example be able to pay off their mortgage or invest in buy-to-let property.
Richard Collinson, chief executive of RetireEasy, said: “Some people will want to pay off their mortgages on their own homes. I think there will be a trend for that.
“Retirees might say “do I invest in buy-to-let property”? We are not seeing a huge appetite for that but I think we might in one or two years’ time.”
But David Whittaker, managing director at Mortgages for Business, said: “The nature of the beast is such that the sort of person who has been investing carefully and cautiously in a pension scheme isn’t going to change tack at the stage of retirement and put significant assets into buy-to-let.”
“Yes a small amount might, and it’s not going to have a significant impact on the market.”
And writing in this month’s issue of Mortgage Introducer magazine, Andy Young, CEO of TBMC, also doubted the hype around pension reform.
He writes: “My view is that the impact has been over-hyped and the reforms will have little effect. This isn’t to say that the buy-to-let sector won’t continue to grow, but that growth is more likely to come from professional landlords expanding their portfolio.”
Collinson admitted that buy-to-let is not for everyone, adding: “I think people are a little concerned about buy-to-let because of the publicised house price bubble which I don’t think exists except in London.
“Since the rules changed in the Budget the retirees are initially happy they have more flexibility.
“The first reaction is “we can live a little better” and then caution comes into play and they say “we don’t want to run out of money”.
Retirement planning website RetireEasy was started in 2011 and was initially available on a subscription-only basis, but it has lately been made free to use.
Using the service pensioners can track their finances throughout their retirement.
Eventually he intends to fund the website by providing links to providers of annuities, pensions, and also insurers.
