Recent buyers ''most affected by house price falls''

By MoneyhighStreet Staff. Published on July 20, 2008 This post currently has no comments.

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The recent slump in house prices is only really an issue for people who recently arranged mortgages and got onto the property ladder, a financial expert has said.

Recent figures show that house prices in the UK are slipping, but Frances Walker, a spokesperson for the Consumer Credit Counselling Service, said that this would only really be a problem for people who sorted out mortgages in the recent past.

She explained that her organisation was finding that most people struggling with repayments at the moment had "simply borrowed too much".

"Everybody is saying that house sales are down and that the value of houses are down, and that''s really only a problem for those who are at the start of their mortgage and haven''t got enough equity in the house to cover the short haul," Ms Walker added.

The expert also suggested that people who had arranged attractive fixed-rate mortgages a few years ago could be in for a shock when the deals expire.

"We''ve got all the people coming off fixed-rate mortgages and obviously having difficulty finding those again," she said.

For people worried about meeting their future mortgage repayments, Ms Walker said setting budgets and sticking to them was absolutely key.