The provider commissioned the report from research house, the Future Foundation, and also found that despite 32% of us not having a pension only 11% of Britons plan on selling or downsizing their property to fund their retirement.
Among people aged 34-44, 42% want to stay in their own house when they retire. For people aged 65+ the proportion rises to 77%.
Trevor Matthews, CEO of Friends Provident Holdings, said: "There is no doubt people still see their house as an investment, however, it is important to make the distinction between people appreciating the value of their house and actually planning to use it as an asset.
“Our research has revealed that currently only 11% of those we spoke to plan on selling or downsizing their property to fund retirement and an even smaller proportion - 6% plan on releasing the equity in their property.
“However, with increased longevity and the decline of final salary schemes, it is clear that in the future many people will need to consider how they can realise some of the value from their house; as a result we believe that equity release schemes will become significantly more commonplace in the future."
The Pensions Policy Institute (PPI) estimates that the value of housing wealth owned by people over the State Pensions Age could increase by 40.5% from £907 billion in 2009 to £1,274 billion in 2030 (in 2009 earnings terms).
Friends Provident said this suggests the number of pensioner households with medium or high value houses who could release their housing wealth in order to support their retirement could increase by a third from 3.9 million households in 2009 to 5.2 million in 2030.
