Negative Equity Fears for Landlords

November 18, 2008 by Brendan

Ratings agency Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services have estimated that between 20 and 40 percent of landlords could be in negative equity next year so will owe more on their property than it is worth if the prices of property fall by 25 to 30 percent as experts predict.

Similar figures for homeowners are predicted at 14 to 20 percent.

Part of the larger problem with landlords is that they are likely to have interest only mortgages anyway, which means they are more vulnerable to price falls because they have not been paying off the capital.

According to S&P, 88 percent of buy to let mortgages are on an interest only basis and almost half of those mortgages they looked at had a Loan to Value (LTV) of 80 percent or more.

Buy to let mortgages account for 11 percent of the whole market, consisting of around 1.1 million mortgages and already show a higher than normal level of repossessions than their residential counterparts.

Written by

Brendan
Brendan

You may also interested in:

Sesame Bankhall looking to recruit more advisors

Sesame Bankhall Group (SBG) is looking to expand its mortgage network by bringing in more advisors, and it has hired a new team that will focus on that goal.

Advisors express high levels of satisfaction with lenders

Mortgage advisors in the UK have expressed their highest levels of satisfaction with lenders in five years, according to a new survey that has just been published.

New managing director appointed by MPowered Mortgages

MPowered Mortgages has announced the appointment of a new managing director of mortgages, with the company having