Mortgage lenders see fewer Britons in arrears in Q3
The FSA has suggested that Britons are now gradually getting on top of their mortgage repayments.
Britons made a concerted effort to get on track with their mortgage repayments during the third quarter of 2009, according to new figures.The Financial Services Authority (FSA) confirmed that an average of 395,000 mortgage holders found themselves in arrears between July and September - a decline of two per cent from Q2.
In addition, the regulator found that there were just 46,000 new arrears cases over the three months, which represents a ten per cent drop from the preceding quarter and a 30 per cent fall on the peak recorded at the end of 2008.
The FSA stressed that the number of people falling behind with their repayments was still 16 per cent higher during Q3 2009 than in the equivalent period 12 months earlier.
Nevertheless, its latest figures also revealed that new mortgage advances reached £40 billion, which represented a quarterly improvement of 20 per cent.
This increase was achieved despite mortgage lenders only looking to provide deals to the lowest-risk borrowers.
The FSA findings suggested that 2.57 per cent of Britons now have arrears of 1.5 per cent of their overall balance or more, which is down from 2.63 per cent in the second quarter.
Backing up the validity of the trend, the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) noted from its own investigations that the number fell from 2.8 per cent to 2.61 per cent.
"Arrears and possessions are lower than expected earlier in the year and the majority of the population have been choosing to stay on their standard variable rates or move to trackers," commented CML director general Michael Coogan.
Last week, the CML claimed that mortgage lenders issued 55,000 home purchase loans in October, which is the highest tally since December 2007.
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