Brits 'struggle with mortgages'
24 September 2007
The number of people struggling to repay their mortgages is increasing significantly, Credit Action (CA) has claimed.
While there has been an increase in the number of debt enquiries, there is a noticeable shift in the nature of debt trouble toward the mortgage sector, CA remarked.
High house prices and rising interest rates, five rate hikes in the past 13 months, have culminated in troubles for many homeowners.
Chris Tapp, deputy director of Credit Action, said: "Over a number of years there have been at least five interest rate rises, having a big knock-on effect on people's abilities to keep up with mortgage payments, so I think that's been a crucial change that we've seen recently.
"I suppose with all the turmoil we've seen at the minute in the markets with Northern Rock…mortgages are a very live issue and that certainly fits with what we've been seeing."
"I'm not sure that it is necessarily either people borrowing irresponsibly or being lent particularly irresponsibly, it's just economic factors combining to really stretch people's budget," he added.
According to recent figures from Credit Action the average outstanding mortgage for the 11.8 million households who currently have mortgages is £96,560, while Britain's personal debt is increasing by £1 million every four minutes.
