People now take an average of three years and nine months to save a 5% deposit, financial group National Savings and Investments found. This is due to average earnings failing to keep pace with the increase in house prices, the group said. Salary has increased by 68% over 10 years, while house prices rose 142%.

Repossessions on the increase
The number of properties taken into possession rose from 3,070 in the second half of 2004 to 4,640 in the first half of 2005. The Council of Mortgage Lenders (“CML”) expects the rising trend to continue over a three year period peaking at approximately 12,000 a year during 2007 with 120,000 mortgages falling into arrears.

Howard Archer, chief UK economist at consultancy Global Insight, said there was a real risk that the coming months could see further rises in the number of insolvencies and repossessions. "With economic growth likely to remain below trend in the near term at least and unemployment set to continue rising, there is a very real danger that individual insolvencies and mortgage repossessions will climb markedly further over the coming months."