The first half of 2022 has seen a shift in spending among equity release drawdown customers, data from Legal & General Home Finance (LGHF) has indicated.

Customers have continued a trend of aspirational spending on treats such as holidays, with 25% doing so compared to 11% in 2021. LGHF suggested this could have been prompted by surges in travel that have seen UK airports struggling this summer.

However, with inflation at its highest rate in several decades and as living costs continue to rise, the data also shows that many homeowners are turning to their property to help bolster their bank balances, with 25% of customers supplementing their income with the value found in their home, compared to 19% in 2021.

The data also showed that some customers are using their property wealth to fund gifts to loved ones, with 12% doing so. However, LGHF highlighted that this trend could increase further as financial pressures prompt older generations to provide more support to younger relatives.

“We are increasingly seeing people turn to their properties to achieve life-long goals, or to improve the standard of their retirement,” said LGHF CEO, Craig Brown. “This is especially true following the pandemic property boom, which has seen people’s homes become one of their most powerful assets.

“Even as the cost of living crisis intensifies, homeowners are using property wealth to fund aspirational spending, amid pent-up demand for holidays. But we’re also seeing priorities shifting in response to the cost of living crisis. Many homeowners are looking to their property wealth to help bolster their squeezed incomes and build a safety net for both them and their loved ones.”

Legal & General’s recent Equity Economy report, conducted with the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR), found that people are increasingly making the most of property wealth. According to the findings from the report, equity release is currently funding one in every £90 spent by retired people within the UK. It also forecasts that the equity release market value will surpass £12bn in 2030.

“Financial advice is a requirement for equity release customers; this, along with stringent safeguards and new industry standards, has seen it evolve into a solution that should be considered along with other sources of retirement income,” Brown added.

“Advisers will play an increasingly important role in helping homeowners understand if equity release might be a solution to ease the current pressures placed on their finances, or to help support family members. Where equity release is an appropriate solution, then products such as our optional payment lifetime mortgage, which allows customers to pay some, or all, of their monthly interest are proving popular.”

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