102 Year Old Man Gets Mortgage

It was reported in the Sunday Telegraph that a 102-year-old has been granted a 25-year, £200,000 mortgage. The pensioner, from East Sussex, is believed to be the oldest person in the UK to be granted a mortgage.

He faces repayments of £958 a month on the interest-only loan and intends to pay them from rental income and make money from the property's increase in value over time. This does however technically mean that at the youthful age of 127 he will still need to pay the capital amount due.

The unnamed pensioner said he wanted "to get into buy-to-let" and to become a late-in-life property entrepreneur.

Most lenders will now give mortgages to over-65s who fulfil the lending criteria but impose an age limit of 75. A handful, however - Bristol & West, Woolwich, and The Mortgage Trust have no age limit.

A spokesman for the Citizen's Advice Bureau said: "Taking out huge loans later in life can lead to serious problems. Borrowers must be extremely cautious and lenders must not be irresponsible or the consequences could be horrendous."

We however are inclined to think that at the age 102 there are more serious problems on the horizon than being in debt.