Tag: negative equity

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Property news

Negative Equity in Northern Ireland

The part of the UK hit hardest by the negative equity trap is Northern Ireland. According to figures from mortgage administration company HML, 41% of borrowers in Northern Ireland who have taken out mortgages since 2005 owed more than their house was worth during the last quarter of 2013.  That is the highest rate of 12 UK regions.

That’s an incredible 68,000 households whose properties are worth less than their outstanding mortgages.  One bit of good news is that prices are rising slowly and this figure for those in negative equity has dropped from over 75,000 in the last quarter of 2013.  Still it is small comfort to those who wish to sell their properties and move on. Particularly as some analysts are forecasting that it will be several years yet before house prices in NI catch up to their peak.

Check out this article in the Telegraph for more details.

Categories
Property news

Half a million homeowners in negative equity

Figures published by mortgage group HML suggest that almost half a million homes are worth less than the mortgages held on them. In all 8 per cent, or 463,000, of mortgage holders were in negative equity.  However, as usual with UK property news there are huge regional variations.

For example, in Northern Ireland 68,000 homeowners, or 41 per cent of borrowers, were in negative equity at the end of last year.  The figure in northern England is 16% and in Scotland, 13 per cent of households were in negative equity.  But in London, only 1 per cent of borrowers were in difficulties, following the recent boom in the capital’s property prices.

Categories
Property news

Lenders warn home owners to prepare for interest payments increase

This article on the BBC website gives a bit of mixed news.  On the negative side it warns of rate rises early in 2015. However, this is hardly new information and has been forecast for quite some time. Maybe use a mortgage calculator to work out exactly what your payments will go up by for each quarter of a percent rate rise (drop us an email if you need help with this).

On the plus side though repossessions are down to 5,400 for the second quarter of 2014.  Although this is down I’m personally quite saddened as that’s nearly 2,000 people a month losing their homes.  Or more than 60 per day!!

Let’s hope the trend continues downwards and the much vaunted economic recovery reaches grass roots level.