The number of home repossessions has been held down by record low interest rates
The number of homes repossessed from struggling owners in the UK fell in the second quarter of the year.
There were 7,700 properties repossessed in April, May and June, the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) said, a drop of nearly 4% on the previous quarter.
This put repossession levels back to the same position as the last three months of 2012.
The number of homes being seized by lenders has been falling in recent years as interest rates stay low.
Low-cost mortgagesHomes are repossessed if householders fall well behind on mortgage payments and lenders see no prospect of the bill being paid.
Repossession figures in the recent financial crisis peaked in 2009 when there were 48,900 homes seized over the course of the year. There are 11.3 million mortgages outstanding in the UK.
The numbers have fallen since 2009 owing to the record low level of interest rates. The Bank of England has held the Bank rate at 0.5% for more than four years, and lenders have been competing for relatively few buyers by offering low mortgage rates.
In addition, lenders have been under pressure not to repossess properties unless it is genuinely a last resort. They must do a considerable amount to convince the courts that they should seize a borrower's home.
Mortgage rates and, in turn, repossessions might be expected to remain low following an announcement of interest rate plans by the Bank of England on Wednesday.
The Bank said it would not consider raising the Bank rate until the jobless rate has fallen to 7% or below, which could be another two or three years.
The Bank rate is a key factor used by financial institutions when setting their own rates for borrowers and savers.
Source: BBC News - Business http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-23612774#sa-ns_mchannel=rss&ns_source=PublicRSS20-sa
