Brits forced to rethink spending habits, say National Homebuyers

Homeowners in the UK are being forced to reduce their spending as the protection of rising house prices begins to fade away.

[UKPRwire, Tue Nov 13 2007] Debt counselling service provider Thomas Charles says that people are being forced to think about the amount of money they spend or they risk running into financial difficulty and possibly having their home repossessed.

According to the organisation, Britons have over indulged with their spending in recent years - safe in the knowledge that they can rely on the value of their home to help them out of any difficult situations.

However, James Falla, director of Thomas Charles, said that this may no longer be the case for many homeowners.

"I think people need to perhaps wake up a little bit to the fact that they can't just spend willy nilly and that money is becoming tighter, but I also think that with respect to the credit crunch, people are being told by the media now that it's more difficult to get mortgages," he commented.

"They are being told that their houses aren't raising quite so quickly in value, and I think those things are actually starting to filter through to the general public and they are thinking: 'If I go on spending as I am, maybe I'm not going to be able to sweep it under the carpet by remortgaging, like I did before.'

"I think the effect of reducing house prices... [and the fact that] it is not so easy to get mortgages is going to give people pause for thought in their spending because they haven't got the cushion that they've had to almost fall back on," added Mr Falla.

Fast property sale expert Julian King adds, "The homeowner needs to consider how easy it will be to sell their property. It's not simply a case of reduced value, but also facing a limited number of buyers due to the tightening of lending criteria.

"Homeowners looking to sell because they fear financial problems will also be facing with the unnatural time it will take to sell as more homes are placed onto a market of few available buyers. Take into account the Hips legislation and new mortgage rates for your next property; it will take much longer and will be more costly than has been previously".

National Homebuyers are the UK's largest quick property sale firm, guaranteeing to make an offer to purchase any property surveyed for vendors who need a quick property sale. As a private commercial buyer, the company does not require the vendor to have a Home Information Pack in place in order to buy each property.

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