Families who have homes repossessed face six-year housing wait

As if the fear of losing your home as you slowly fall behind with your mortgage payment was not enough, there is now reports that families who have their homes repossessed because of defaulting on their mortgage payment, have been warned that they could face a six-year wait for social housing. You have to wonder what the UK will be like in just two-year’s time, thousands would have lost their homes as they struggle to keep up with payments, and now it seems as if the current credit crisis will hit people far harder than they first thought.

Not so long ago, families knew that if they had their home reposed they would be moved into social housing, but the news that there is a six-year wait before they are permanently re-housed will come as a shock to them. Local Government Association chairman, Sir Simon Milton has said “by 2010 around five million people would be on social housing waiting lists.”

This is a combination of a number of factors, the first is falling house prices, in turn this has an affect on the mortgage market so restrictions has to be put in place. As the economic downturn worsens, the lack of affordable housing will then continue to push up the number of families onto the ever growing social housing waiting lists. Milton added “With the repossessions, the end of small deposit mortgages and the millions of people already on social housing lists, it will mean that those trying to get a home they could call their own from the council could wait more than six years for a two-bedroom house.”

Sir Simon, made a speech at the Chartered Institute of Housing, he said that the unprecedented pressure on social housing had been caused by strong house price gains in recent years. It is not just people who have mortgages facing problems; first-time buyers are also having troubles, because getting a mortgage is now much harder than it was just a year ago.

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