Home repossessions rise by three per cent

The number of repossessions orders taken out by mortgage lenders rose by three per cent during the third quarter of the year to 13,987, figures from the Financial Services Authority (FSA) have shown.

Despite the increase, the FSA said the number was ‘much in line’ with the average for the year as a whole and six per cent below the figure for the first quarter of the year.

The drop is likely to have been driven by interest rate cuts at the start of the year, which made mortgages more affordable, and increased government help for struggling borrowers.

The FSA said the number of borrowers who had fallen into mortgage arrears of more than 1.5 per cent of their outstanding loan had fallen for the third successive quarter, and at 46,000 was down 10 per cent on the three months between April and June and 30 per cent below the peak in the last three months of 2008.