A UK mortgage provider has just confirmed they have granted a 25-year interest-only loan to an OAP applicant aged 102 from East Sussex, which just goes to prove you can never be too old to invest in property, writes Tony Booth.

More and more people are using property investment as a way of financing their retirement and others simply want to safeguard their children's future with a prosperous income generating inheritance.

But it is particularly important that older people identify in advance why they are buying property, so they can defend themselves, their children and the asset itself from attack by the taxman at the outset.

I can just about remember the 1980's, when my father was approaching that big half-century age that few of us ever want to admit to or utter aloud. He had reached a point in life when he had decided it was time to think more seriously about his retirement.

Looking back, his assessment must have been relatively straightforward.