Saturday, March 01, 2014

Negative Equity

One of Mrs Thatcher's proud boasts when she made council houses subject to sale to the occupiers was that Britain was becoming a property-owning democracy. The boast seems a little empty today with growing homeless figures, re-possessions and the following news. 'Nearly half a million UK households are still in negative equity - meaning their homes are worth less than the mortgages on them, figures show. There is wide regional variation, with 41% of borrowers in Northern Ireland - 68,000 homeowners - in negative equity at the end of 2013, the figures from mortgage group HML show.' (BBC News, 1 March) Another empty political boast proves futile, but negative equity sounds so much better than skint doesn't it? RD

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