Friday 15 May 2009

Mortgage repossessions - the true story

This chart points to a rarely acknowledged fact; the UK housing market was in trouble long before the credit crunch. Mortgage repossessions began to rise in 2005, while prices were increasing and loans flowed freely.

Mortgage repossessions in 2008 didn't quite reached the horrific heights of 1991. However, this year, we might see repossessions reach an all time high.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Eyeballing the chart, 2008 looks like the third highest since 1987.

Josh said...

A tsumani of repossessions is about to hit the UK, esp. btl. Just wait.

sobers said...

There will be less repossessions this time than in the early 90s because this time most of the banks are nationalised! So they will be told to keep the numbers down, at the expense of the bottom line (the taxpayer can pick up tab!)

I expect larger numbers of people to have lost ownership of their houses, but less to have been repossessed and evicted, than in the 90s. A less cruel system, but one that will still have massive social and economic effects. Most of which lie ahead, whatever the 'green shoot' brigade think.

Laban said...

Alice - have you considered the effect that the removal of all tax reliefs from holiday homes will have when it kicks in next April ?

I must confess I didn't realise all the advantages there were - you could offset all the associated costs of maintenance etc against your personal tax. There were also significant capital gains advantages. These will apparently stay until the house is sold, but I'd still imagine that holiday homes will be less attractive investments, and that some owners might sell because they're no longer getting the advantages. There are an awful lot of holiday homes. It could be that retirement by the sea is about to get cheaper.

Anonymous said...

All official figures lag and lie. I knew the market had gone wobbly back in 2005 when a friend couldn't continue to perform his magic trick of borrowing more and jumping up the ladder: computer said 'nooooo!'.

formertory said...

So much for mortgage regulation in 2004.