Mortgage possession claims fall

A total of 20,061 mortgage possession claims were issued in the fourth quarter of 2009, which was 15% lower than the previous quarter, it has been revealed.

The study was released by the Ministry of Justice and also found that 16,928 claims led to orders being made - a 42% reduction when compared to the same quarter in 2008.

Simon Rubinsohn, Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors chief economist, stated that the data showed the fallout from the downturn is modest when compared to the early 1990s.

He put this down to the Mortgage Pre Action Protocol - introduced in November 2008 - and low-level interest rates, which minimised the pain felt by homeowners in the recession.

And Mr Rubinsohn expects the number of repossessions in 2010 to be on a similar scale to those experienced in the previous year - 46,000 - and there are some encouraging signs that the employment sector seems to rising.