There are two two schools of thought about the link between owned housing and the problem the Pension Commission are having with pensioners.

On one side, is the argument for pensioners.There’s the thought that remortgaging owned property frees up cash to pay pensioners bills. For those who have property and too little income equity release is an answer so long as the house can be sold when the old people can pass the mortgage on of the inheritors can sell the house. Equity release also depends for its long term success on the inheritance bill that the house and illiquid estate still leaves. That’s the good side.

On the other side is the problem is pensioners keeping house prices high so that there is a blockage in what John Major called the cascade of wealth through generations.

The FT points out to recent research from Savills which shows that the UK’s “boomer” homeowners aged over 65 have amassed total housing wealth of £2.25tn in their main homes, up from £232bn in 1995, according to that research this underlines the scale of the housing divide between Britain’s generations.

Adjusted for inflation, the headline figures were less marked, but nonetheless amounted to “real” growth in housing equity of 52 per cent over the past 15 years and 372 per cent over 30 years.

While less than a quarter of the UK adult population is over 65, they accounted for 43 per cent of the total housing equity held by all owner-occupiers in 2025, even without accounting for buy-to-let homes.

There are three reasons for this. Pensioners are living longer, they’ve enjoyed what really is the baby boom and they’ve been able to pay down to their mortgages. 74% of house owning pensioners have paid off the mortgage they they used to buy or keep their property when fully earning.

Proper owning ownership, not dependent on mortgage is still going up but it look sto be peaking.

The success or equity release may account for the proportion  of pensioners with mortgages but it is still a tiny percentage of owning. The ownership of housing looks like it’s has increased over the past ten years, though not as fast as the twenty years before. Maybe this is what “booming” means.

Which returns us to pensions which are still occupational pensions for a large number of boomers.

We know that people who are in their sixties are more likely to be beneficiaries of good pensions but we maybe forget that they are the beneficiaries of a 30 years boom in housing equity.

The Resolution Foundation point out that  ownership rates by age of those born in the seventies or earlier was fundamental, no groups later since have matched them for getting on the housing ladder.

The FT article concludes that there are many pensioners living in houses they do not properly use. For “Coo” read Savills.

The pensioners are blocking up the market but what will change this? I suspect that as those in the sixties and before have pension or unmortgaged house or both. Isn’t it time that generations within families start sharing unused properties or perhaps having proper conversations about buying their parent’s properties.

There are very few such conversations going on, if my experience is typical. There are many house owners born in the 1940s and fifties who are needing care and companionship, perhaps we should consider how children and grandchildren can co-occupy with those who own the house. Perhaps younger generations should think about ways to protect their retirement with inherited property. Perhaps wealth can be earned by care of those who need it most – the house-owning parents.

I do not have the answers but I know about the problem and perhaps those considering the adequacy of 15m of us they’ve identified are looking at retirement poverty, might consider the questions that Savill’s research and the FT’s article bring to life.