A new YouGov survey commissioned by housing charity Shelter has found that over a quarter of British people are worried they might fall behind their rents and mortgage payments this year.
According to International Business Times, about 29 percent of respondents are concerned about their abilities to pay their rate and mortgage in 2016, particularly with the prospect of the Bank of England to increase interest rates. With the improvements in the economy, policymakers are looking into raising interest rates gradually from the current 0.5 percent, the base rate since 2009. The rate has remained at an all-time low all these years to keep credit cheap and help the economy deal with the consequences of financial crisis.
Shelter's survey also shows one in three people, or 4.9 million, fear being a homeless as a result of a breakdown in their relationships.
In addition, housing costs have drastically increased over the past five years, with average rents hitting 5.26 percent from 2011-2015 in England, and 25.58 percent in London. In another poll, the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (Rics) said that housing prices in London will continue to rise in the next five years, with an annual increase of 5 percent and 4.5 percent in the rest of the country.
According to The Week, this forecasted house prices increase can be largely attributed to the increasing housing demand seen since December, with the investors trying to beat the "landlord tax" implementation. Rics survey has found that there are more buyers than sellers in the market in the past 11 months, a situation that is likely to remain so in the coming months. With that, all the more that the prices are at risk of climbing further. Around 25 percent of respondents are seeing a house prices increase between January and March.
