The number of repossessed homes in Great Britain has fallen by 9 per cent according to a report from the Financial Services Authority (FSA) reported in The Times. The figure applies to the period between April and June and is compared to the three months previous.
The actual number of repossessions was 13,610 ? 1,274 less than before. Although this is still higher than the same period last year, 23 per cent up, the FSA is cautiously optimistic about the figures and said that ?the sharply rising trend evident up to the third quarter of 2008 has stabilised in the last three quarters?.
One of the reasons given for the fall is the Ministry of Justice giving banks extra barriers to discourage repossessions. The number of people experiencing hardship in paying their mortgage has fallen for second quarter. It equates to a 14 per cent drop to 51,000 compared with figures from the previous three months.
However, the number of people in mortgage arrears has increased by 30 per cent compared with last year, with an extra 3,000 in the last quarter. According to the FSA, mortgage lending has grown by 0.2 per cent in the quarter to June, an increase of 1 per cent year on year.
Money lent for home buying is greater than the amount spent on remortgaging and this is the first time since 2007 that this trend has been reversed. New lending for home buying purchases was over 50 per cent of the total lending rates this quarter, which shows an increase of over 14 per cent compared with the previous quarter. Again, this shows an increase over the last quarter of 2007 of 50 per cent.
