Barclays has released new analysis today, revealing that last year saw some of the most affordable mortgages on the UK market for over a decade. Researchers examined the accounts of over a million Barclays mortgage-holders, and found that monthly mortgage repayments comprised around 15.4 per cent of the average customer’s net salary. This is significantly lower than the high point, in 2008, where the amount reached 20.5 per cent. Last September saw the lowest mortgage costs for 10 years, with the average mortgage repayment dropping to just 15.2 per cent, working out as £488 monthly. The figures backed up a recent opinion poll commissioned by Barclays, in which mortgage-holders said that they were happier with their monthly repayments than they were at the same time in 2010. An overwhelming 83 per cent of respondents said that they had some wiggle room to maintain their repayments should their financial situation or interest rates change for the worse, and 64 per cent declared their mortgage “affordable”, whereas last year the figure stood at just 52 per cent. As for the coming 12 months, there has been a sharp fall in the number of mortgage-holders who believe that interest rates are likely to rise in the coming year just 40 per cent, compared to the 74 per cent in January 2011 who thought that rates were likely to go up. The year 2013 is when interest rates will begin to rise again, a quarter of respondents added. Barclays head of mortgages Andy Gray said: “With the cheapest ever mortgage deals offered to homeowners last year and the fiercely competitive mortgage market it stands to reason that the average monthly mortgage payment was at its most affordable level in a decade.”
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