Money News

Brits can’t afford home repairs

Dominic Welling dominic.welling@consumerchoices.co.uk

A third of UK homes need repairing but owners can’t afford to fix them.

More than a third of Brits over the age of 50 are living in a house in urgent need of repair.

However, 15% cannot afford to fix their home, according to research from Saga Personal Finance.

Women in particular are feeling the pinch, with one in five forced to let their home deteriorate rather than repair it.

Saga Personal Finance polled 14,000 people and discovered that above all people drastically needed help to repair:

• Roofing
• Drainage
• Guttering
• Heating

Although 15% said they could not afford these works, half of those polled said they would pay for repairs out of their savings, and a third said they would have to dip into their income or pension to mend their homes.

Andrew Goodsell, executive chairman of Saga Group, said: "Many retirees find they need additional cash, whether it is to make every day life easier, fund house repairs, take the trip of a lifetime, or to contribute to care in later life.”

Saga Personal Finance added that an increasing number of customers were considering equity release as a way of enabling them to maintain their properties.

Goodsell added: "For many, equity release is the ideal solution, however until now the market has not listened to people's needs and providers insist on charging hefty fees upfront, which prevent many people from being able to access their money."