Home Reversion Schemes in UK and Its Enlightenment for China

Home-based type of house-for-pension scheme is used to release some of the exchange value of housing in advance to improve the elderly life. House-for-pension in the UK is carried out through the Home Equity Release Scheme, mainly including life-long mortgage loans and home reversion scheme. The former is a reverse mortgage model, while the latter is a variant of sale-leaseback. Although the reverse mortgage occupies a monopoly position in the market, it contains insurmountable risks. In fact, the home reversion scheme that is rarely paid attention to has the advantages of high asset conversion rate, low interest rate risk, and low life cycle risk. It is more in line with the social reality that the life expectancy of the population is prolonging. China's house-for-pension scheme is in its infancy. It is a very meaningful attempt to build a house-for-pension scheme with Chinese characteristics by learning from the UK home reversion scheme, based on the experiences in construction of shared-ownership and affordable housing in China.