North-South divide in repossessions widest in six years

The North-South divide in housing repossessions has widened to its largest in six years, with 33% more repossessions in the North than in the South, according to detailed research released this morning by e.surv chartered surveyors.

e.surv’s analysis of court-ordered repossessions in the year to Q2 2013, broken down by post code, 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 the year to Q2 2007, there were 14% more repossessions in the North than in the South, a figure which has been steadily rising.

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. The average rate of orders per 1000 households fell from 3.3 to 2.8.

In the North, 72% of towns had more repossessions than the UK average, compared with just 24% of towns in the South. This trend is most accentuated in the North West, where eight in ten towns (79%) had above the UK average number of repossessions.

Although the North-South divide in repossessions is widening, the rate of repossessions is falling across the nation. There were 17% fewer repossessions in the South in 2012-13 compared to in 2011-12, but just 16% fewer in the North. This indicates that while Northern towns are recovering, they are doing so at a slower rate than the South.

This has been a consequence of continued economic hardship and job losses in these areas. The North West has shown the greatest rise in unemployment in the UK, with 9% of the working population out of work, according to the ONS, a 0.8% rise over the last quarter.

This has forced more borrowers to struggle with mortgage repayments, which in turn has led to the higher than average rate of repossessions.

Similarly, the North East and Yorkshire also have some of the highest levels of unemployment, with 10% and 9% of the working population idle in these regions.

Richard Sexton, director of e.surv chartered surveyors, explains: “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.

“There is still a long way to go before the Northern property market returns to its pre-recession health, and all the while the North is still playing catch-up, and falling further and further behind the South.”

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