More and more mortgages projected past retirement age of 65 -CML

The body said that the lengthening mortgage terms and the older age at which people are joining the property ladder means that nearly 35 per cent of new home loans are not expected to be paid until the borrower has passed the nominal retirement age of 65.

The CML also said the proportion of mortgages extending past the age of 65 taken out by home movers now accounts for about half the total, while the number of first-time buyers, over half of whom now expect to be repaying over a term lasting longer than 25 years, are taking out mortgages that will mature beyond the age of 65 - accounting for 21 per cent of the total in the fourth quarter of 2014.

The rapidly aging population of the UK was cited as a further contributing factor to the growing trend, with the CML noting that there are currently more than 11 million people aged 65 or over (accounting for around 17 per cent of the population). This total, the CML said, is expected to grow to around 17 million (or almost 25 per cent of the population) by 2034.

The CML described the issues for lenders as “complicated”.

It said key issues around retirement borrowing included the question of whether people will need new kinds of products – and whether consumers need a product that can “‘morph’ from mortgage to lifetime mortgage”.

It said: “Some borrowers may want to work beyond their expected retirement age, but are their plans really plausible?”