Thursday, Feb 11, 2010
Repossessions hit 14-year high
BBC: Repossessions hit 14-year high in 2009
The number of people who had their homes repossessed reached a 14-year high during 2009, figures have shown.
The Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) said 46,000 homes were repossessed last year, the highest number since 1995.
Posted by doomwatch @ 10:09 AM (1220 views) Add Comment
17 Comments
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1. p. doff said...
As I have said previously, most surveyors I know report that they have been quite busy doing repossession valuations. This article scotches the conspiracy theory regularly expounded on this site that the government has 'stopped' repossessions in order to keep house prices up.
2. little professor said...
This article scotches the conspiracy theory regularly expounded on this site that the government has 'stopped' repossessions in order to keep house prices up.
It's hardly a conspiracy theory, p.doff. It's an open and oft-repeated policy of the government:
E.g.: Telegraph, Feb 2009: Gordon Brown claims new measures will stem home repossessions
Gordon Brown said the Government was introducing measures he claimed would stem the surge in people losing their homes as repossessions hit a 12-year high. "We're going to do everything we can to stop repossessions," he said on a visit to his Fife constituency on the same day that new figures from the Council of Mortgage Lenders showed the number of UK homes repossessed last year jumped 54pc to 40,000.
The Prime Minister said: "We're signing agreements with the building societies and the banks that there is a moratorium on repossessions for people with these banks and building societies."
Concerns have been expressed that it will simply defer a 'repossessions spike' until 2011.
3. hpwatcher said...
This article scotches the conspiracy theory regularly expounded on this site that the government has 'stopped' repossessions in order to keep house prices up.
The laws brought in by Labour are definitely a factor, but one amongst many......low interest rates are the real key - in my view.
4. icarus said...
As LP says.
The number of repossessions is obviously lower than it would have been without government intervention. The question is whether the government is intervening in order to 'keep people in their homes' or to keep up house prices, or, if both, which motive is the dominant one.
More people are running up credit card liabilities to pay their mortgages.
5. mark wadsworth said...
Icarus, at the moment, the government is mainly intervening in order to try and win the next election, which is fair enough. If recent articles about the £300 billion taxpayer bank support running out and so on are anything to go buy, in a year or two all HeII will break loose.
6. p. doff said...
LP. Fair comment on my conspiracy theory statement. I admit to being a bit naughty trying to rattle a stick in the wasp's nest. However, my take on Brown's announcement ("We're going to do everything we can to stop repossessions'') is just another hollow electioneering soundbite. The facts seem to support this as ......''BBC: Repossessions hit 14-year high in 2009'.... doesn't exactly tie in with ...."We're signing agreements with the building societies and the banks that there is a moratorium on repossessions for people with these banks and building societies."
Also Mark W's statement the other day that :- ''they have made it nigh impossible to repossess hallowed homeowners'' doesn't exactly ring true either when you look at the facts..
7. mark wadsworth said...
Off topic, in the two years after we sold our house there hadn't been another sale in the same postcode sector until last month, when, another more-or-less identical one a few doors down changed hands for THIRTY PER CENT LESS than what we got.
OK, ours had a loft conversion and a new-ish kitchen revamp, but that can't explain more than ten per cent of the value (assuming what we spent added value £ for £).
8. mark wadsworth said...
P Doff, fair comment, let me rephrase that "much more difficult" and not "nigh impossible". We're still only at half the level or repo's of the early 1990s.
9. tenant super said...
p.doff,
I will be the first to admit that my grumbles about the government 'stopping repos' is a poor choice of language. However, they have slowed them and I think the number would have far exceeded 46k had banks not been arm-twisted into forbearance. Low interest rates, speeding up the qualification for interest payment support during unemployment and not needing to dispose of the repossesed properties as quickly as possible have all played a part. I have said in the past, the government can't afford to pay unemployed people's mortgages indefinitely so the biggest threat I believe is a massive extension of the sale and rent-back scheme (currently only available to vulnerable people such as disabled), where the banks 'pay back' the money owed to the taxpayer with repossesed properties which become council houses, the original owner becoming a tenant.
10. techieman said...
Maybe we are in the eye of the storm. The question is how close are we to moving into the hurricaine's second path???
11. alan_540 said...
That must be the question Brown's asking himself every morning...
12. 51ck-6-51x said...
Yes, whilst 46K is a 14 year high, it's not /that/ high. We here were predicting ~70K pre-legislation & base rate chop chop.
13. it_is_going_with_a_bang said...
"However, in an interview with Radio 5 live, Housing Minister John Healey caused controversy when he said that, for some people, having their home repossessed was the best thing that could happen to them."
No doubt he will be hounded into silence for daring to say something resembling the truth for a change.
14. vacuouspolitician said...
Well I'm sure that news has made some peoples day on this site. Shame it isn't 70K hey!
lol That really would have got loads of you grubby, money-obsessed 'chosen few' charlatans rubbing your greedy little trotters.
Where's your compassion? You should be ashamed of yourselves.
Jar Jar Spoon Spoon.
15. p. doff said...
I didn't say that low interest rates etc have not reduced the number of repossessions; it's obvious that they have. I was merely suggesting that claims on this blog that repo's have been virtually stopped are patently untrue. Furthermore, all the government statements I have seen on the subject claim that their actions are intended to keep people in their homes (well they would wouldn't they), but the frequently recurring mantra on this site is that those horrible boomer VI homeownerists really just want to support high house prices. Well, I'm a semi-retired boomer and I don't give a stuff about house prices either way - I'm more concerned about protecting the value of my savings and income. So, my conspiracy theorist comment was a bit of a naughty retaliatory wind-up. I wish I hadn't bothered now :-)
16. Matteh said...
i think you're all forgetting sale & rent back schemes
17. Marvin said...
@ VP.....the same level of schadenfreude has been levelled at contributers to this site from VIs and casual get rich quick merchants for years before this current tsunami hit. Now the truth is finally starting to dawn on them its too late to say I told you so. The irony is I don't think many or anyone is going to be adversely affected in the months/years to come, ashamed of myself, hardly I'm terrified. Those who could or can do anything that is remotely sensible haven't and won't because its politically suicidal. We are watching a train crash that was entirely preventable and worst is still to come. Having debt written off now may well be the best option for some, far from being a grubby money grabber I just want to be able to afford a house!
ps very apt username though.
life don't talk to me about life!