New analysis of more than 1,000 Key Group customer cases agreed between Q2 2024 and Q1 2025 shows a marked shift in how UK homeowners use equity release.
Over the period, the share of new plans taken primarily to repay an existing mortgage rose from 36% to 63%, indicating greater use of property wealth to stabilise household finances.
While mortgage repayment is now the dominant purpose, discretionary uses fell sharply: home improvements are down from 14% to 5%, property purchases from 7.9% to <2% and vehicle purchases from 7.7% to 3.9%. At the same time, gifting fluctuated across the year between 5.6% and 12.4% and allocations for other debts increased from 2.7% to 9.1%.
Two-thirds of customers split their release across more than one purpose. Around a third (31.6%) used their plan for a single purpose (commonly mortgage repayment or debt), 32.7% divided funds across two purposes, 21.6% across three, and 9.5% allocated funds to four or more priorities.
Londoners released an average of £145,471 per plan in 2025, more than double the UK regional average and the highest in the UK by far. That’s a jump of more than £27,000 on the year before, showing how London’s property market continues to fuel the largest equity withdrawals.
Rachel East, senior director of later life advice at Key Equity Release, said: “Homeowners appear to be taking a pragmatic, two-part approach: using equity release first to secure essentials and ease immediate financial strain, while still setting aside modest sums for holidays, family gifts and other quality-of-life spending. It’s a shift from optional projects toward careful prioritisation.”
