Global reverse mortgages in the news: growth, delay and launch

While reverse mortgages in the U.S. have struggled to push beyond their current market penetration rate for the past several years, their international equivalents don’t always have the same challenges.

Lenders in other countries who make use of home equity tapping in a similar way can have different perceptions and market activity in their territories — and some U.S.-based lenders have taken notice. But as the world keeps spinning, reverse mortgage players in other countries are making moves.

Canadian lender growth

Immediately to the north of the U.S. in Canada, the second-largest reverse mortgage provider — Toronto-based Equitable Bank — is seeing notable growth, according to a recent earnings report.

The company has managed to gain market share in the country’s relatively slow housing market, but a standout division for growth is reportedly the company’s reverse mortgage division.

The company’s “decumulation lending” division includes both reverse mortgages and insurance lending. It reached $2.5 billion CAD in volume (a little more than $1.8 billion USD) in the second quarter of 2025 that ended April 30. This constituted growth of 45% year over year and 8% quarter over quarter.

The bank attributed the growth to “broker support, value to borrowers of choosing Equitable Bank’s differentiated solutions and continued expansion of the available market as Canadians retire and realize the advantages of converting real asset-based equity into funds to live in place.”

Australian program mired in delays

In Australia, the news is less rosy. The government-sponsored reverse mortgage program known as the Home Equity Access Scheme (HEAS) is encountering challenges in serving customers in a timely fashion, according to reporting by The West Australian.

The program “has been bogged down, with many applicants reporting delays dating back to last year,” the report explained. A government division called Services Australia oversees the government’s pension, Social Security and child support payments, which are delivered through a government payment processing service called Centrelink.

Annette Sinclair, a former Centrelink financial information officer now serving as an independent financial planner, told the outlet that the delays had been “significant.”

“While some go through reasonably quickly, the majority seem stuck in the system for at least two months — and often longer,” Sinclair told the outlet.

The outlet described a scenario provided by a reader in which they applied to the HEAS in December 2024. Their application was cancelled due to missing information. After resubmitting, the reader said several weeks went by before a complication with the home’s insurance led to a second cancellation — much to the reader’s frustration and concern.

“The HEAS is a low-cost reverse mortgage arrangement which allows senior Australians to tap into their home’s equity at a relatively low interest rate of 3.95%,” the outlet explained. “Like other reverse mortgages, only real property can be offered as security.”

There are private-label options without government involvement, but the rates tend to be much higher, so customers tend to prefer the government arrangement on a cost basis.

Hank Jongen, general manager for Services Australia, apologized to impacted customers through the outlet, saying that roughly 16,000 applications currently remain in the system.

“Processing times for the scheme vary because they are complex assessments,” Jongen said. “They also often require information from third parties, such as a valuation request, which can add time to claim finalization. We invest significant time training staff and right now, we’re training more staff on these claims to help people faster.”

New product in South Korea

Meanwhile, in South Korea, a lender recently introduced a new non-government reverse mortgage product, according to outlet Korea JonngAng Daily.

Hana Financial Group announced last week the launch of “Hana The Next Home Pension,” which is available to homeowners 55 and older. To enter into the agreement, the homeowner “entrust[s] their homes to Hana Bank and [will] receive fixed monthly pension payments from Hana Life for life, even after one spouse passes away,” according to the report.

The product recently gained regulatory approval and went on the market across the country last week. It has an effective limit that exceeds $881,230 USD (1.2 billion Korean won), the current ceiling for the government-backed reverse mortgage program.

It also maintains something akin to the U.S. industry’s nonrecourse feature while “surplus proceeds from a posthumous sale” are passed onto heirs.

Like a U.S. reverse mortgage, there are a variety of disbursement options including “a flat monthly amount, front-loaded payments or incrementally increasing payments.”