Home improvements continue to be the main reason homeowners take out lifetime mortgages, according to new data from Canada Life.

However, the figures also show a growing number of customers are using equity release to improve their financial resilience by paying off existing mortgages and consolidating debt.

Canada Life’s analysis of customer motivations during the first half of 2026 found that 43% of applicants cited home adaptations and improvements as their main reason for releasing equity. This makes it the most common use of lifetime mortgages.

The proportion of customers using equity release to repay an existing mortgage has also increased. In the first half of 2026, 30% of applicants gave this as their primary reason, up from 27% across the whole of 2025.

The trend strengthened during the year, rising from 27% in the first quarter to 32% in the second.

Even so, mortgage repayment remains below the levels seen five years ago, when 46% of customers used equity release to clear an existing mortgage.

Family gifting remains an important reason for releasing equity, although demand has eased from last year’s high.

In the first half of 2026, 15% of applicants said they were releasing equity to gift money to family members, down from 19% in 2025.

Despite the decline, gifting remains more common than in previous years, accounting for 11% of applications in 2022 and 10% in 2023.

Customers are also becoming less likely to use equity release for discretionary spending.

The proportion releasing equity to pay for holidays fell to 21% in the first half of 2026, compared with 26% in 2025. Other non-essential uses, including buying cars and purchasing additional properties, also declined over the same period.

The findings suggest more homeowners are prioritising essential financial needs over lifestyle spending as cost-of-living pressures and economic uncertainty continue.

Canada Life home finance proposition manager Sadna Zaman said: “Home adaptations and improvements remain the most popular reason for releasing equity, with customers using lifetime mortgages to help fund changes that allow them to stay in their own home and enhance their quality of life in retirement.

“The data also shows that appetite for discretionary spending on things like holidays has cooled in the first half of this year amid ongoing cost-of-living pressures and market uncertainty. Instead, customers have increasingly been looking to build financial resilience by consolidating debt, building an emergency fund, or clearing an existing mortgage.

“The wide variety of reasons underlines the flexibility of equity release as a solution, and the importance of careful, tailored advice. With comfort, financial security and intergenerational planning all competing, advisers have a crucial role in helping clients weigh these different priorities and show how property wealth can fit into a broader retirement strategy.”

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