London homeowners much more likely to expect to miss mortgage payments than those elsewhere in UK

Mortgage-holders in London are more than twice as likely to expect to miss a payment in the six six months, compared to those in the rest of the UK, according to a new survey.

Data from  mortgage servicing platform Eligible AI found that 9% of Londoners with a mortgage expect to miss a payment in the next six months. That compares to 4% across the UK as a whole.

That would suggest more than 150,000 Londoners missing payments in the coming months.

In addition, 39% of Londoners cited mortgage payments as a significant cause of financial-related stress alongside a spiralling cost-of-living and burdensome energy bills.

The survey also found that 12% of London’s mortgage holders do not understand the terms of their mortgage as they do not communicate with their lender.

Zahra Hassan, co-founder of Eligible, said: “The fundamental problem is that mortgages are a financial product that customers take out only once every 3-5 years. This means that they aren’t regularly engaging with their mortgage and aren’t in the loop of what all their options are.

“In a broader sense, rising interest rates, coupled with increased energy and living costs, heighten vulnerability to default. However, the key factor that pushes someone from financial strain to actual default is their lack of awareness about the array of options that their bank could have offered to temporarily ease their financial burden, particularly on their largest financial obligation – their mortgage.”

The findings come as a number of lenders have upped their mortgage rates in recent months. Coventry Building Society is the latest to do so, following HSBC and Santander. However Halifax has bucked the trend by lowering rates.