Huge repossession gap between North and South

Huge repossession gap between North and South

The difference in housing repossessions has widened to the largest margin in six years with 33% more repossessions in the North than the South.

According to the latest research from e.surv 72% of Northern towns have more repossessions than the UK average.

The research involved analysis of court-ordered repossessions in the year to Q2 2013, broken down by post code.

Whilst the North-West, Wales and Yorkshire were particular repossession hotspots some areas of the South are catching up with repossession rates rising in the South West, South East and London.

e.surv’s analysis found there were 3.2 repossessions per 1,000 households in the North, a third more than the South, which saw 2.4 repossessions per 1,000 households.

This is the largest gap since the onset of the financial crisis. In total, repossessions fell 17% in the year to July, with 66,544 repossession orders in 2012-13, as opposed to 77,856 in 2011-12.

Richard Sexton, director of e.surv chartered surveyors, said: “On a national level, repossessions are falling, as the economy slowly crawls back to health. Mortgages are becoming cheaper, wages are slowly picking up, and the labour market is showing more vitality.

“But the recovery has been more pronounced in the South, driven forward by booming property and labour markets in the capital and home-counties.

“This has been slow to filter through to the North, where staggeringly, seven out of ten Northern towns are repossession hot-spots. In areas like Yorkshire and the North West, wages are recovering more slowly, and fewer jobs on offer.

“As a region, the North has traditionally depended on public sector jobs, but a squeeze in public sector funding has led to loss of jobs for many, and very slow pay increases for others.

“Pay increases that are consistently below the rate of inflation, have further tightened household budgets, and caused many to fall behind on mortgage repayments.”

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