The UK’s biggest lender to private landlords has announced a 50 per cent increase in the number of private landlords who are falling behind in their mortgage repayments.
Bradford & Bingley revealed the 50 per cent leap in arrears from its mortgage records on 2nd June in what The Independent has labelled as the “first signs of a collapse in Britain's buy-to-let property market.” The increase in arrears was a reflection of the first four months of 2008.
Between January and the end of April in 2008, B&B further reported an increase of more than 52 per cent in the number of landlords who had fallen three months or more behind in their mortgage payments. The figure represents 1.5 of B&B’s entire buy-to-let customer base.
Across the entire buy-to-let sector in Britain, B&B represents 20 per cent of lending. The level of buy-to-let arrears in one of the company’s business books was reportedly also at an increase of 80 percent.
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