Equity release figures encouraging

Dominic Fraser-Smith, group product manager for UK Life, Aviva comments on equity release sales as revealed by SHIP - the UK equity release industry bodies - official sector Q2 2009 figures: "These figures are encouraging and we believe they could herald the first glimmers of a recovery for the UK equity release market. Over this period, the number of equity release customers rose by 5% from 5075 (Q1 2009) to 5328 (Q2 2009) - a reversal of a trend which has seen falls over the last few quarters.

"As a leading provider of drawdown mortgages, we are delighted to see that this product range has grown to account for 51% of the market. The flexibility offered by this product is ideally suited to how many of today's consumers want to access their housing wealth and we expect that its market share will continue to increase in the future."

"We remain highly positive about this market and believe that we will see further growth in 2009."