Just under half of the population believe that property is the best way to save for retirement.
This is according to a survey which looked into the attitudes towards retirement saving, conducted by the Office for National Statistics.
It also found that the figure has grown continuously over the past six years, rising from 40% in 2012 up to the most recently recorded proportion of 49%.
Commenting on the results of the survey was Nathan Long. The senior pension analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown stated: ‘The government’s attempts to make buy to let investing less attractive have done nothing to dim the attraction of property as the best way to make most of your money.’
However, Savills state that there has been no growth in the buy-to-let proportion of the mortgage market since 2016, a figure which currently stands at 17.3%.
The company puts this down to the impact of government policies introduced over the last few years, resulting in BTL investment seeming less attractive. This includes increased restrictions on lending, tax relief reductions as well as the increase in stamp duty on additional properties.
Despite the impact of these policy changes, property remains the favoured choice for retirement savings by a gap of 27% – employer pensions were in second place at 22%. Whilst the long-term effects of the changes are yet to be seen, the growth observed by the ONS study suggests that property is unlikely to be overtaken in the near future.
