Mortgage new

Interest-only mortgage numbers falling
The number of outstanding interest-only mortgages is falling but more work is needed to ensure people are not left unable to pay, a lenders’ group says. Interest-only deals mean borrowers pay the interest on the loan, then pay the capital when the mortgage term ends. At the end of 2014, there were about 2.4m outstanding home loans of this type, the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) said. This was 460,000 fewer compared with a year earlier. About a quarter of these had come to the end of their term, but others have seen borrowers moving on to “safer” deals. However, at the end of the year, a total of 16,000 loans had matured but not been repaid. The CML said that in many cases homeowners would be in the process of paying the lump sum, so not all would be in difficulty.