Think twice about using your mortgage equity

Britons are now slowing down when it comes to withdrawing equity sharply and the market is seeing the consumer led recession on the High Street – take last year’s Christmas sales period for example.

Most Britons who take out their mortgage equity pour it into the High Streets, treating the money as if it were free – so to say. But last December, major retailers on the High Street reported slower than usual sales blaming it on the prolonged summer and lack of choice in their winter ranges. However, could it be that no one had the spare cash?

Homeowners could have run out of equity to cash in or maybe it is a dose of realism. While many brokers and financial advisers are telling us that mortgage equity withdrawal is an easy way to fast cash, they are also warning us about what we should spend it on.

It’s also still safe to assume that many people are actually unaware of what exactly mortgage equity withdrawal is and how to go about it.

Latest figures from the Bank of England reveal that British homeowners are still borrowing against their homes to support their spending. However, they also show that homeowners have borrowed almost £2 billion less between July and September last year, than they did 3 months previously.  

Mortgage equity withdrawal took off during the house-pricing boom between 2000 and 2001. It doubled the following year and again over the following year. Where the property is already mortgaged then a remortgage is to tool used to release that equity via a mortgage product.

However, the end of double-digit house-price rises, plus higher mortgage rates, has resulted in a mortgage equity slowdown.

Figures show that Britons have been spending £110 for every £100 of our take-home pay meaning that roughly half of our overspending has been covered by mortgage equity withdrawal. However, using your home as a means to support your spending is a risky game to play.

Almost three-fifths (60 per cent) of all secured loans are used for debt consolidation and if you are already struggling to make ends meet, it can be financial suicide to turn your unsecured debts into a loan secured against your home.

If you struggle to pay off a credit card for example, you may be hit with some fees. However, if you fail to keep up payments against your home, you will lose it.

If you don't want to put your home on the line in order to fund your lifestyle, then consider the alternatives. For example, you could avoid interest for up to a year by transferring existing debts to a 0 per cent credit card. Furthermore, an unsecured personal loan is much less risky than a secured loan as you are unlikely to lose your home if you can't keep up the repayments.

Your home is not a personal savings account that you can dip into when you feel like it. It's a very valuable asset, so try to pay off your mortgage as fast as you can rather than extending it for the thrill of new clothes and appliances.

UK consumers are the most indebted in Europe. The latest report confirming this came from research group Datamonitor and showed that a typical UK consumer now owes more than £3,170 on credit cards, overdrafts and personal loans.

The figure doesn’t even include our mortgage debt, which comes to about another £21,000. Most people have become resigned to the fact that we will have some sort of debt for the rest of our lives. It’s definitely the way society is going as prices for not just homes, but taxes and charges increase while our incomes seem to stay the same.

However, always think about the future and how the market may change to your disadvantage before getting yourself into more debt over something you may not necessarily need.