A lobby group has called on the government to begin regulating mortgage lending in order to ensure the current property market crisis never happens again.
The government should be taking a long-term view on the property market and introduce stricter controls on mortgage lending, it has been claimed.
According to pressure group PricedOut.org.uk, which is lobbying the government to encourage affordable housing, the current problems in the market - which has seen prices drop and repossessions rise - are down to mistakes made during the boom of the last decade.
Both the Nationwide and Halifax house price indexes have generally recorded falls over the last few months. Additionally, the Financial Services Authority revealed that there were 13,161 repossessions during July to September last year - up from 11,078 the previous month and 6,838 the year before.
Estimates on how many repossessions are set to take place vary, but the Centre for Policy Studies predicts that 150,000 will take place in England and Wales alone this year and next. However, homeowners who are now facing the prospect of repossession are "the victims of an unsustainable housing bubble, perpetuated by irresponsible lending by the banks", a PricedOut.org.uk spokesperson said.
She added: "As such, the government needs to introduce serious, long-term measures to regulate bank lending, such as the huge number of self-certified mortgages issued in the last five years, to prevent such a housing bubble occurring again in the future."
