Around 100 families every day are being kicked out of their homes because they can’t afford to pay their mortgage, it emerged yesterday.The Council of Mortgage Lenders has revealed a sharp rise in repossessions, the first in more than two years.
Meanwhile millions of homeowners face higher mortgage payments if, as expected, interest rates start to rise from an historic low of 0.5 per cent.
Experts warned homeowners are ‘buckling under the pressure’ of tax rises, benefit cuts, record bills and pay freezes.
Between January and March 9,100 people lost the battle to keep their home, up 15 per cent on the previous three months and the first rise since 2009.
Nearly 250,000 homeowners have fallen behind with their mortgage, with the worst hit suffering arrears equal to more than 10 per cent of the value of their loan.
This means a homeowner with a mortgage of £150,000 – the average taken out to buy a home – has at least £15,000 of unpaid mortgage bills. And around two-thirds of homeowners have a variable rate mortgage, which means repayments will rise when rates go up.
David Birne, an insolvency expert at the accountants HW Fisher & Company, said: ‘It will be the end of the road for many over-stretched households.
‘Once rates rise, even by as little as half or one percentage point, they will be tipped over the edge.’
Experts warned yesterday the number of repossessions is set to rise even higher, with the CML predicting 40,000 this year. Read More
