A couple in their sixties are getting divorced.  They and their solicitors are exploring a settlement that will enable the wife to buy a property free of mortgage and enable the husband to buy a property with a deposit and a mortgage loan.

The husband can afford the monthly mortgage instalments, but only if the term is twenty years or more.  If he has to borrow over a shorter period, the instalments will be too high.  He needs a mortgage that will continue until he is well into his eighties. Who will lend him the money he needs?

According to an article in the latest newsletter from Property Surveying there are already lenders, mostly building societies rather than banks,  who will make such a loan.  One has an upper age limit of 89; another has no upper age limit at all.  What is new is that the Building Societies Association, which represents all 44 building societies in the UK, has decided to review upper age limits generally.  This could lead to more lenders making this sort of loan.