40,000 Homes Repossessed in 2008
New figures from the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) report that 40,000 properties were repossessed in 2008, the highest figure since the dark days of the early 1990s, when 75k homes were lost in 1991. The figure represents a 55% jump on 2007 figures, but the bad news doesn’t end here - many forecasts say that 2009 will see the repossession total almost double.
By the end of 2008, around 182,000 mortgages were in significant arrears - behind by 2.5% of the loan amount or more - representing a 50% rise over the course of the year.