The latest mortgage and landlord possession statistics from the Ministry of Justice has revealed that landlord possession claims in Q4 2023 hit 23,382, a 14% increase when compared to the same period in 2022.
The statistics reveal that mortgage and landlord possession actions continued their ‘steady growth’ in 2023.
Mortgage possession claims now sit around 65% of what it was in 2019.
The statistics in Q4 shows mortgage possession actions have continued their gradual upward trend with mortgage claims at their highest since 2019.
Additionally, claims, orders and warrants are 39%, 9% and 3% respectively above the previous year’s level, while repossessions were 19% below the previous year’s levels.
Landlord claims have increased at a faster pace and now make up around 85% of the 2019 baseline.
Landlord possession actions have been increasing since Q2 2021 and they are now at their highest levels since the pandemic.
Claims, orders and warrants volumes increased by 14%, 12% and 12% respectively while landlord repossessions in the county courts rose by 23% when compared to the same quarter in 2022.
This increase is driven by accelerated procedures in England, as volumes in Wales are starting to decline.
In the accelerated procedure, the rise is across all the action types of claims (16%), orders (20%), warrants (25%) and repossessions (34%) when compared to the same quarter last year.
Increases in possession claims have been recorded in all regions.
Private and social landlord claims remained concentrated in London (with seven and one of the highest 10 claim rates respectively).
The median average time from claim to mortgage repossession has also decreased to 50.5 weeks, down from 63.7 weeks in the same period in 2022.
Across landlord sectors, in October to December 2023, 36% or 8,522 of all landlord possession claims were social landlord claims compared to private landlord claims (31% or 7,225). 33% (7,635) were accelerated claims.
This contrasts with pre-covid proportions when many claims (around 60%) were social landlord claims.
