Have house prices fallen too far for equity release?
Figure from the Bank of England show that a net £2.8 billion was paid off the value of outstanding mortgages over the last quarter which is a sharp change from the £5.2 billion of debt which was added to the mortgage figure in the UK in the preceding quarter.
While many UK home owners had been looking to release equity from their homes by remortgaging part or all of their assets, it seems as though prices have even fallen too far for those looking at this option. That is not to say that equity release schemes have been abandoned altogether just that they are now very much on the decline.
While equity release is often a last resort for many home owners it does nothing more than delay the inevitable for many in the UK. Struggling to pay off their personal debt they simply replace this with a longer term mortgage debt which is more expensive in the long run and still requires them to pay back funds on a regular basis. If the economy worsens and home owners default on their mortgage payments they will literally be in a worse position than before.
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