Three quarters (75%) of over-55s haven’t heard of green mortgages, a study by Age Partnership has found.

Research commissioned by the equity release advisory firm highlighted confusion around green mortgages among homeowners over the age of 55.

The findings revealed that 32% of over-55s believe the provider of the green mortgage only invests in green projects, while 18% thought it means a better mortgage interest rate if their house contains green efficiencies, and 16% believed it means a better mortgage interest rate if they plan to make their home have green efficiencies

Age Partnership also reported that 6% thought a green mortgage means cashback on their mortgage if their home has green efficiencies, while another 6% of over-55s thought it means cashback on their mortgage if they plan to make their home have green efficiencies.

A total of 17% of Age Partnership’s over-55 respondents thought that green mortgages mean all of these things, but around 27% believed they mean none of them.

Executive director of later life lending at Age Partnership, Matt Stirland, said: “We commissioned this study as we were interested in our target audience’s appetite for green later life finance solutions.

“The first part of the study was to understand the over-55s behaviour around being green, exploring the barriers, as well as the levels of understanding.

“The findings gathered from the study are being shared with our panel of lenders to aid green finance product development.

“With 72% of over-55s saying that it’s important to be greener, it shows that there is definitely an appetite to make change. We just need to make sure that green later life finance matches up with expectations, and we educate the audience about the offering.”

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