Owner-occupiers over the age of 60 now hold a record £2.89trn of net housing wealth in homes, worth a total £2.95trn, according to estimates from Savills.

The UK’s largest tenure by value is those who own their homes outright, the property firm said.

Savills said that these owners have increased their share of property value in the last decade due to “above-average growth” in the number of older homeowners joining the ranks of the mortgage-free.

In total, over-60s owner occupiers control more than half (56%) of all owner-occupier housing wealth across the UK, while over-75s control 23%. By comparison, under-35s hold just 6%.

However, Savills highlighted that the over-60s are not completely debt-free. They have a total of £60bn mortgage borrowing still outstanding, but this is just 2% of the total value of their homes, Savills research reveals.

In stark contrast, the under-35s hold property with a total value of £600bn but have a total of £300bn mortgage borrowing still outstanding.

“Over the past 10 years, debt has become a less important component of the growth in the value of the nation’s housing stock, with increasingly more equity concentrated among older homeowners and investors,” said head of residential research at Savills, Lucian Cook.

“The baby boomers have continued to build wealth, having paid off their mortgage debt, and Generation X has been working hard to achieve the same goal. Meanwhile, Generations Y and Z have had much less opportunity to work their way up the housing ladder profitably.

“But despite many older homeowners holding on to properties that are now too big for their needs, there is little incentive for them to move during their lifetime. While boomers make up 44% of homeowners, they only made up 18.5% of homebuyers last year. Meaning that just one in 57 of them moved house.

“The provision of more retirement housing, along with other incentives to make downsizing more appealing are also fundamentally important. Such measures would help unlock much-needed family housing and equity that can be used to help younger generations get on and trade up the housing ladder.”

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