Repossessed houses monthly in England and Wales 2017-2020

The are several factors that can accumulate in the repossession of a home, the most common reason for being mortgage arrears. This occurs when you can no longer make the mortgage repayments. Mortgage lenders will repossess the home to sell to recover the money owed. Between January and December 2020, a total of almost 4.7 thousand homes in England and a further 399 homes in Wales were repossessed.

London, South East and North West come off worse

Regionally, there appears to be a correlation with arrears of lower average weekly earnings and home repossession. Regions in the North of England saw a relatively higher number of repossessions during 2020.

Repossessions account for less than one percent of sales 

In 2020, the number of repossessed homes was less than one percent of the volume of homes sold during the same period. As of the third quarter of 2020, The United Kingdom (UK) had the highest value of outstanding mortgage lending in Europe.