Fewer Brits to lose home this year
FEWER homeowners will face having their houses repossessed in 2009 than previously thought because of low interest rates and government intervention, the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) said yesterday.
The CML said it has cut its prediction for the number facing repossession this year to 65,000 from 75,000, but this is still much higher than the 40,000 repossessions in 2008.
It said it expects that further job losses and disruption to incomes will cause the number falling behind with their mortgage payments to rise over the course of 2009 – but at a slower pace than it had previously anticipated.
The CML believes it is too early to be sure that the recent positive data indicates that start of a housing market recovery but encouragingly expects total mortgage balances to broadly stagnate this year.
“Our forecast is for net lending to fall by £5bn, which represents a considerable improvement from the £25bn contraction we had previously anticipated,” the CML added.