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The NatWest owner said it wanted to “lift the pressure” on homeowners. A spokesman said: “We want to reassure customers.”
The Government last week urged lenders to grant a minimum three months breathing space.
RBS sold a near 60 per cent stake in the business to the Government last Friday - in exchange for a £20billion bailout.
Robert Bonnier, 38, splashed out £3million more than the property’s asking price last year.
He and wife Irene had planned to redevelop the home in West London’s exclusive Holland Park with a huge extension, an indoor swimming pool and cinema.
But the credit crunch has wiped 20 per cent off its value.
Bonnier - who made and lost a £150million fortune on a dotcom enterprise before going into banking - has racked up debts said to be around £15million.
His agent said: “You only have to look to see what’s happened to him to understand why the house has been repossessed.”
The Council of Mortgage Lenders said it had never heard of repossession of such an expensive property.
Despite Government promises to help keep people in their homes in the downturn, repossessions are soaring. More than 100 homes a day are being seized by lenders - that’s a massive 50 per cent up on last year and the highest level since the early Nineties.
But as RICHARD DYSON explains, not everyone is a loser.
The investors - making a killing
The dinner-jacketed staff are welcoming, the sales patter slick, the surroundings plush. Welcome to the first auction of repossessed homes by American firm REDC (Real Estate Disposition Corporation).
Tempted by the growing number of home repossessions in Britain, REDC launched its UK arm, auctiontoday.co.uk, last month to offer a ‘wide selection of properties at auction prices’. More than 400 homes are listed on its website - all repossessions.
The function room at the Hilton Hotel in Gateshead near Newcastle upon Tyne is packed with eager bidders keen to pick up a bargain.
There was something that always bothered Rene Galvin when she walked in the front door of her new condo - an eye-watering, rotten egg smell that clung to the four walls and everything contained within them, from the furniture to her carpet and clothes.
She could never quite put her finger on the cause of the foul odor that seemed to pervade every pore. “I’d just stand there, look around and say to myself: ‘One day, I’ll find out whatever it is that died inside these walls’,” she says.
But there were further problems to come; mirrors that corroded around the edges, drains that rusted on the baths, pitted faucets, the television, computer, dishwasher, coffee pot, telephones, and air-conditioning system that all inexplicably broke down. Even the treasured gold-dipped necklace she wore around her neck turned black. Then there were the headaches, throat and sinus troubles.
“I had no idea what was going on. I thought ‘Boy, the Florida air sure is bad’,” she says with a wry laugh.
Humour, though, is not something that comes easily these days when she talks about her $500,000 home in Bonita Springs, Florida, that now sits empty after it was found to contain contaminated drywall from China.
The discovery of sulfur-emitting compounds within the imported construction materials has sparked a national investigation, numerous lawsuits, and a scandal that is feared to have affected as many as 100,000 homes, a majority so far in Florida. Reparations could run into the billions of dollars.
The number of people struggling to pay their mortgage is growing by almost 740 a day, raising fears of another surge in repossessions
Another 68,000 homebuyers fell into arrears in the final three months of 2008, according to grim data from the Financial Services Authority. It took the total to almost 377,000 - a 31% leap in 12 months. The average debt has also risen almost 20% to £5,473.
Repossessions actually dipped slightly in the quarter to 13,028 as lenders bowed to Government pressure to make it the last resort. But the 46,750 total for last year - 128 a day - was still up 68% on 2007.
Adam Sampson, of housing charity Shelter, urged the FSA to force lenders to give more help to struggling families.
“With tens of thousands of families living in the shadow of repossession, the FSA must ensure that lenders treat struggling borrowers fairly,” he said. “The rise in arrears and repossessions has been fuelled by irresponsible lending.
“The FSA and Government must re-write the rule book to ensure the days of feckless lending are never repeated.”
Housing Minister Margaret Beckett said: “We are determined to do everything possible to ensure repossession is always a last resort, and have taken decisive action to help households facing difficulties right now.
“As well as agreeing a three-month minimum period before lenders seek to repossess, we have put in place more free debt and legal advice, and have increased support to help people pay their mortgage if they lose their job.”
This was found: http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/city-news/2009/03/18/repossession-fears-grow-as-740-more-people-a-day-can-t-pay-their-mortgages-115875-21207351/
More than 60,000 homeowners are forced to sell up each year to pay for a place in a care home, according to a leading charity.
The figure has been rising fast because of the growing numbers of elderly Britons and the fact that many of those entering old age bought homes during the property booms of the past four decades.
However, an ever-increasing share of the wealth they hoped to leave to their families is being seized by the state to pay for their care in later life.
Last year half of the cost of care for the elderly - £6billion - was taken from the pockets of the middle classes who own their own homes or who have savings.
The 60,000 figure was made public yesterday by the charity Counsel and Care. It is to put forward plans for easing the plight of those who fail the state means test and so have to pay the £500-a-week plus costs of a care home place for themselves.
Counsel and Care’s estimate follows figures put forward by the House of Commons library, which suggested at the weekend that 45,000 people a year sell their homes to pay care home bills, a rise of 5,000 since 2003.
The charity’s estimate is closest to the 70,000 a year level that is widely accepted among advice and pressure groups and local authorities
Mortgage-finance company in Washington Freddie Mac said it will allow some borrowers to rent out their homes after losing them to foreclosure.
The goal of the new policy is to prevent properties from becoming vacant so they won’t fall into disrepair.
Freddie also said it will allow renters to remain in their homes even if their landlord enters foreclosure. It has about 8,500 properties in the foreclosure process, but many are vacant.
“Keeping foreclosed properties occupied and in better repair will support local property values and promote a faster recovery in the housing market,” said Freddie Mac Chief Executive David Moffett.
Fannie Mae, which announced similar plans in January, said it has stopped about 20,000 foreclosure sales and halted 6,300 evictions of owners or renters this winter.
Under Freddie Mac’s new policy, tenants and former property owners need to demonstrate they have enough income to pay the rental bill.
Freddie Mac also said it would consider reinstating a mortgage for those borrowers who can qualify for a modified loan.
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were taken over by the government in September.
For more about this issue, http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/realestate/2008742377_freddiemacrent15.html
HOME repossessions are soaring in the credit crunch according to a shock new report — with one desperate family forced to live in a pigeon shed.
The Council Of Mortgage Lenders said there were 27,100 repossessions in 2007 and warned that this year there could be a 65 per cent rise to 45,000.
One family hit by the crisis are the Galloways. They had their three- bedroom semi repossessed in June when they fell behind on repayments.
Checkout operator Debbie, 31, and husband Philip, 42, have six children aged between four and 14.
While the cash-strapped couple sleep in a relative’s pigeon shed the children are having to live with another member of the family.
Distraught Philip says: “We worked hard and did our best to buy a house, to get on the property ladder and have something for our kids. “We tried to pay and tried to get help to sort it out when things got tough . . . but we were too late. No one would help us.”
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/woman/real_life/article1519444.ece
SCROUNGING squatters have set up home in two seven-storey mansions on London’s Park Lane — worth a total of £30MILLION.
The 20 crusties, some of whom sneaked in through an open basement door, are living rent-free yards from Madonna’s luxury pad.
They spend their time strumming guitars while letting three huge dogs foul the rooms.
The scruffy squatters boasted last night of the “magical” views of Hyde Park.
And the scroungers, whose presence in the exclusive area has horrified posh locals, asked: “Why would we live anywhere else?”
The hippies — aged 21 to 45 — moved into the properties, with a combined value of £30million, two months ago.
Since then they have rubbed shoulders with the mega-rich residents of the capital’s most exclusive street, lined with flash car dealerships including Rolls-Royce and Aston Martin.
Their seven-storey paradises share a clear view over the park, where the group walk their smelly dogs.
And one squatter, 27-year-old Martin, from Cape Town, South Africa, said: “The view at sunset over Hyde Park is just magic — especially from the penthouse. I really love it here.”
The loafers spend their time strumming guitars and creating “art” in the 12,000sq ft, 12-room homes.
They claim the properties — previously used as offices — had stood empty for about two years.
And they are able to live there because squatting is NOT illegal if entry to an empty property is not forced and there is no criminal damage caused by the squatters.
Owners must obtain court orders to boot out unwanted occupants.
The freehold to both properties is owned by the Duke of Westminster via his company Grosvenor (Mayfair) Estate.
There are also a small number of leaseholds, controlled by property investment firms based in Guernsey and the British Virgin Islands.
No legal action had been taken to remove the squatters last night. The owners only learned they had moved in when they were told by The Sun.
Inside, the magnificent homes are now a clutter of amateur art, acoustic guitars and overflowing ashtrays.
More dishevelled-looking squatters arrive virtually every day. Some stay weeks while others drift off quickly. The sole price of admission is an electric heater to warm the vast rooms — as there is no hot water or central heating.
Three huge dogs roam freely about the houses, leaving droppings everywhere.
Martin brazenly asked The Sun to urge its readers to send money and furniture.
He said: “A lot of those here have to get by on Jobseeker’s Allowance. There was no furniture, so we had to bring our own. If anyone could send us money or furniture it would be great.
“We’ve no TV and make our own music to keep ourselves entertained.”
He added: “There’s quite a large squatters community in London and we always pass on information. We’d noticed these houses had been empty for about two years. We got in through an open basement door.”
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article2158953.ece
London luxury home prices had the second-biggest decline on record in January as would-be buyers struggled to secure mortgages from banks hurt by the global financial crisis.
The average value of homes costing more than 1 million pounds in London’s most expensive neighborhoods fell 3.7 percent from a month earlier, Knight Frank LLP said in an e-mailed statement Jan. 31. In the past 12 months, prices have slumped 21 percent, the biggest annualized drop recorded by Knight Frank.
“The sudden restriction of mortgage finance” was the main cause of the market’s decline last year, Liam Bailey, head of residential research at London-based Knight Frank, said in the statement. “This factor is continuing to cause problems for the housing market and the wider economy.”
The cost of buying a luxury home in the U.K. capital has fallen for 10 straight months, declining 21 percent since the market’s peak in March. The biggest drop since the broker started the survey in 1976 was 3.9 percent, recorded in October.
Financial-services companies in London may cut as many as 60,000 jobs by the end of 2010, according to research firm Oxford Economics. As a result, the market won’t rebound soon, Knight Frank said.
“Price falls should begin to level out towards the end of 2009, although 2010 is likely to see prices move sideways at best,” said Bailey. Knight Frank now expects prices to fall as much as 35 percent from their peak, compared with its previous estimate of 30 percent.