Property repossessions are likely to soar next year the country’s mortgage lenders said yesterday. The Times, The Daily Telegraph

CML predicted that there would be a 50% increase in repossessions in 2008, as well as rising levels of arrears and a fall in house prices in real terms.

Hardest hit would be borrowers in the “adverse credit sector”, the British equivalent of the US sub-prime area, who are facing a large increase in their monthly payments.

The CML considered the market so unpredictable in the wake of the summer banking crisis that it delayed its 2009 forecast of house price growth. But it said that prices would be static over the coming 12 months and were likely to go up by just 1% in 2008, well below inflation.

Repossessions would increase from 30,000 this year to 45,000 next year, the CML said — levels not seen since the mid-1990s.