Annabel Grossman
NEARLY 1,000 British families faced forced eviction proceedings last year.
According to figures released from the College of Property Registrars Britons accounted for 3% of repossession cases in 2012.
In total, 30,034 first homes were repossessed by the banks in 2012 – or one every 12-and-a-half minutes – because of non-payment on mortgages.
More than a third (36%) of these belonged to foreigners, with Brits accounting for 2.9%, Ecuadorians 8.8 %, Moroccans 5.5% and Romanians making up 2.8% of the homeowners.
A further 8,000 second homes were also repossessed, while 14,229 families effectively gave their homes back via so-called ‘dacions’, which are effectively a means of cancelling a mortgage loan by handing over the keys of the property to the bank.
This practice is usually reserved for specific situations where the family in question is very poor and the bank believes it will be impossible to recover the mortgage.
In the past dacions have come under fire from critics who believe they encourage a culture of non-payment of loans, but these figures suggest they could be becoming normal banking practice in Spain.
The hot points in Spain include Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia and Malaga, which saw 2,268 repossessions for first homes.
OP. would you please check these numbers. Some are just wrong, and the the rest are in a context that doesnt match the headline. Thanks.
Great for the government of course. These people purchase a house and pay a whopping 10% “tax” (what for is anyones guess). Then evict the people, then start again. Sounds like a great way to make money lol.