Bank of England Chief Economist, Andy Haldane, has said he believes that property investment is a better way to fund retirement than a pension scheme. He has also said that he cannot make sense of pensions, because they are too complicated.
The Telegraph reports –
‘As the rates available for savers turning cash into lifetime incomes have drastically fallen in recent years, a growing number of pensioners are becoming buy-to-let investors in a bid to use property to turn their savings into a higher income… Landlords in some areas of the UK can expect to receive around 9pc a year income on their investment. This compares to over 55s buying an annuity, who can now expect to receive less than 2.5pc a year, depending on their age and health. In addition to his pension Mr Haldane has two homes,— one in Surrey and a holiday home on the Kent coast… He told the Sunday Times: “It ought to be pension but it’s almost certainly property. As long as we continue not to build anything like as many houses in this country as we need to … we will see what we’ve had for the better part of a generation, which is house prices relentlessly heading north.”‘