We set out to answer a simple question: who is the Hodge mortgage customer?
But the more we explored it, the clearer it became that the answer doesn’t start with the customer, it starts with us.
There was a time when lending into later life was underserved. Traditional lenders often stepped back as borrowers approached retirement and this created a gap for Hodge step into. From as far back as the 1960s, we’ve helped shape the specialist space, supporting older borrowers with tailored, innovative products with real understanding of income in later life.
But over time, something changed.
Our roots
On the face of it, Hodge may be built on Equity Release and RIO, but dig a bit deeper and the foundation is, and always has been a specialist lender.
Founded by Sir Julian Hodge, the business fulfilled the simple idea financial services should work for real people. From bringing modern stockbroking to Wales and building a bank for the people of South Wales, the mindset of doing things differently has been there from the start.
In 1965, Hodge Life Assurance was established and went on to become the first provider to launch an Equity Release plan in the UK. At a time when older borrowers were often overlooked, Hodge created solutions which reflected how people actually managed money later in life.
Early on, we recognised income doesn’t stop at retirement, affordability isn’t one-dimensional and customers don’t suddenly become ‘high risk’ because they reach a certain age.
So, while our reputation was built in later life lending, the thinking behind it was always broader.
The shift
In the same way we didn’t see borrowers needing to be fixed by rigid rules or definitions, we knew we didn’t need to be either. We wanted an offering that looked beyond age to understand income, affordability and long-term sustainability in a more complete, holistic way. To us, defining lending purely by age felt like an artificial boundary.
So, we challenged it and then we changed it.
The very same outside-the-box thinking that helped us understand retirement income could be applied much earlier, to anyone whose circumstances didn’t fit a high street approach.
Today, Hodge lends from age 21, with the ability to consider income up to age 80. We know a 50-year-old borrower is no longer automatically a “later life” case, that self-employment, complexity and multiple income streams are part of the borrowing picture and require expertise.
We haven’t moved away from our roots, we’ve just applied them more widely
The Hodge story is often told through the lens of its later life expertise. But in reality, we are so much broader.
We support customers across the full lending journey from those stepping onto the property ladder, through peak earning years, and into retirement planning. Not by segmenting them into fixed boxes, but by taking a consistent, considered view of affordability, income and long-term sustainability.
So, to answer a not so simple question, the Hodge customer is complex. They don’t fit into neat boxes. They live life differently to generations before. From different ways of working to different ways of getting paid, they need a specialist lender who has done the research and understands them. They need Hodge Bank.
Read or download Hodge's first insight-lead magazine designed with our intermediary partners in mind. BrokerIQ is here.