The Equity Release Council publishes quarterly figures compiled from whole-of-market returns. These are the second-quarter numbers, with the comparisons that give them meaning.
Source published · written up 8 September 2026
Equity release may involve a lifetime mortgage, secured against your property, or a home reversion plan. It will reduce the value of your estate and impact funding long-term care.
Total lending increased to £597 million in the second quarter of 2026, up 4% on the previous quarter's £574 million. Overall customer numbers rose 4% as well, to 13,489.
The strongest movement was in first-time customers. 5,307 homeowners accessed housing wealth for the first time, a 9% increase on the first quarter, which the Council describe as returning to the same level recorded a year earlier. Overall lending and customer numbers, though, remained below where they were a year ago.
The Council compile the index from actual whole-of-market returns, which they describe as the UK's definitive equity release data. It is a trade body reporting its own market, and that is worth knowing when you read it.
How we check figures →Average new lump sum borrowing fell 6% over the quarter to £113,779. Average initial drawdown borrowing rose 2% to £63,642.
What actually differs between them →Average drawdown reserve facilities fell against the previous quarter but remained 7% higher than a year earlier, at £56,893.
Further advance customer numbers rose 12% to 1,204. Returning drawdown customers eased 1%, to 6,978.
Nothing here is a rate, and nothing here is what you could borrow. Averages describe a market, not a household.
Why a calculator figure can change →The percentages are the part that travels furthest and means least on its own. A 9% rise in first-time customers is a rise from one quarter to the next, not a trend, and the Council are explicit that the same figure has only returned to where it was twelve months ago.
The release includes a broker forecast, and it is sentiment rather than data, so it is worth labelling as such. More than a third of firms, 37%, expected enquiries to increase in the following quarter, with 35% expecting applications to rise and 37% expecting completions to. Only around one in ten expected enquiries to fall.
That is what firms said they expected. It is not a forecast of the market and we do not publish one.
What any of this means for you. Market averages are not an offer, a rate or an indication of what you could borrow, and a quarter of data is not a reason to act or to wait. What you could release depends on your age, your property and a lender's criteria, and that needs an adviser.
Equity release may involve a lifetime mortgage, secured against your property, or a home reversion plan. It will reduce the value of your estate and impact funding long-term care.
Short answers to the things that come up most. None of it is advice, and every figure on this page carries its source.
From the Equity Release Council, the trade body for the UK equity release market. They compile the index from actual whole-of-market returns and describe it as the UK's definitive equity release data. It is a trade body reporting on its own market, which is worth bearing in mind when you read any of it.
No. These figures measure how much was borrowed and by how many people. They say nothing about the interest rate on any plan, and no rate is quoted in them. Lending volumes and pricing move for different reasons and one does not tell you about the other.
No. An average across a whole market describes the market rather than any household in it. What you could release depends on your age, your property and the criteria of whichever lender is being approached, and the only way to find out is to have somebody qualified look at your circumstances.
Because they measure different things. Lending rose 4% against the previous quarter while remaining below the level of a year earlier, and both statements are true at once. A single quarter of movement is not a trend, and the Council themselves note that first-time customer numbers have only returned to where they were twelve months ago.
Equity release may involve a lifetime mortgage, secured against your property, or a home reversion plan. It will reduce the value of your estate and impact funding long-term care.
One qualified equity release adviser. They will go through your figures and tell you if there is a better answer. It costs nothing and commits you to nothing.
Google Analytics, Microsoft Clarity and Vimeo. Say no and none of them loads. What each one stores, and what Microsoft use theirs for.