Aviva “fully committed” to equity release market

Commenting on figures released by Safe Home Income Plans (SHIP), the equity release industry body, on April 26, Aviva says it is totally in support of the equity release market.

Dominic Fraser-Smith, retirement manager at Aviva, says: “The latest SHIP figures reveal a slight market contraction from the fourth quarter of 2009 to the first quarter of 2010 (213.4 million in Q1 2010, £231.7 million in Q4 2009). However, we believe that this slight fall in market size is purely due to providers dropping out of the market as opposed to a fall in demand for equity release products.”

He adds that Aviva, which offers a range of financial services including equity release products, is confident about the market. “At Aviva we are fully committed to the equity release market and have ourselves had a very positive start to the year. We also believe that the ageing UK population and ongoing shortfall in pension provision will undoubtedly lead to equity release becoming a mainstream retirement funding vehicle in the future as demand for these products continues to increase.”

Looking forward, he even suggests there may be some room for growth within the equity release sector. “As the market stabilises during 2010 and existing providers begin to once again expand their product offering, we expect to see the market recover and possibly some new entrants joining the market again.”