New opportunity: Sell your home brick by brick and get more to live on

It is a well-known problem for many pensioners. They have a lot of equity in their own homes, but it is difficult to access.

PFA aims to address this issue by partnering with Goodlife, a new company that offers customers an innovative concept of partial sale of their homes.

“We see great value in helping our customers with a solution that makes it easier to access their equity in a flexible and secure way. With this initiative, some of our customers can have a better financial everyday life in retirement, where they can have more to live on without having to move from their homes. It is an important part of our desire to ensure our customers' financial security throughout their lives,” says Camilla Holm, Executive Vice President at PFA, and adds:

“As the largest commercial pension company, it is important for us to continue to lead the way and offer innovative solutions and partnerships. PFA should be a good place to retire, and when we hear from some of our customers that they are unhappy about having to sell their homes to access their equity, we naturally try to help,” she says.

Supplementing a well-established system

The new model of partial sale specifically involves pensioners and homeowners selling their homes brick by brick over a long period and in return receiving a fixed amount each month, while being able to stay in their own homes.

“It is a paradox that many wealthy seniors in Denmark find it difficult to live the life they want – despite often sitting on significant equity in their homes. We have one of the world's best mortgage systems, but when it comes to giving older people access to their own savings in bricks, there are some limitations,” says Morten Højberg, founder and chairman of Goodlife.

The idea is that the new offer to pensioners should be seen as a supplement to the existing and strong financial system with banks and mortgages that we have here in Denmark.

Familiar faces

PFA has already started referring customers to the new partner, and while Goodlife is a new and unknown company, there are familiar faces among the owners. These include the former long-time CEO of Arbejdernes Landsbank, Gert Jonassen, and Jesper Berg, who has been director general of the Danish Financial Supervisory Authority.

“With Goodlife, we have created a solution where Danish investors buy a share of your home, and you get money in hand – so you can release your equity and get more out of life while still living in your home,” says Morten Højberg and continues:

“We are very proud that Denmark's largest pension company has chosen to partner with us – not least because it gives their customers a real opportunity to access the equity they have built up over a long life.”

Goodlife has already raised DKK 200 million for the first fund, which will be used to buy partial shares in 200 owner-occupied homes in Denmark, where the individual owners in return get more money in hand. The plan is to open new funds continuously. The ambition is to invest in between 2,000 and 3,000 Danish homeowners' homes over the next five years.

Facts about seniors' equity

Looking at the total wealth of people living in Denmark, consisting of free funds, pension and equity, most are good at using the first two items during their retirement, while equity remains untouched and grows steadily until they pass away. In fact, people aged 60 and over today hold over half of the total equity in Denmark. This means that seniors have tied up around DKK 1,100 billion in bricks in the form of equity.