Tweet
• FSA says repossessions up 60% year-on-year in final three months
• Sharp increase in arrears cases in second half of the year
A total of 46,750 homes were repossessed in 2008 after their owners failed to keep up their mortgage repayments, the Financial Services Authority said today.
The figure marks a 68% increase on the number of repossessions in 2007, when 27,900 homes were claimed by mortgage lenders.
The number of mortgage holders falling into arrears on their mortgages also increased sharply in the second half of 2008.
Some 60,000 homeowners fell into arrears in the third quarter of 2007, followed by a further 68,000 in quarter four. Until then, there had been a steady flow of 54,000 new arrears cases in each quarter since the beginning of 2007.
At the end of 2008, there were 377,000 mortgage accounts in arrears.
The figures show how strict mortgage lenders' approach has become towards sub-prime borrowers. According to the FSA, the number of borrowers with an impaired credit history managing to take out a mortgage made up less than 1% of new lending in the fourth quarter of 2008, compared with 3.2% in the same quarter in 2007.
The total value of mortgages outstanding is now £1,200bn, an increase of just 3.5% compared with a year earlier.
The value of new loans taken out for house purchase fell by 25% in the last quarter of 2008, a fall of 63% compared with the same quarter in 2007.
More details soon ...
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
More...
