Mortgage pain fuels record.rise in home ownership fees

Soaring monthly mortgage payments are fuelling the highest rise in home ownership costs in more than three decades as more than 100,000 households come off fixed-term deals every month.

- HOWARD MUSTOE

Figures from the Office of National Statistics show a 7.4 per cent rise in costs such as mortgage fees and maintenance bills in the year to October, as consumers face an increase in the rate of inflation, driven by rising energy demands.

Payam Azadi, director of finance brokers Niche Advice, said nearly all of his customers were having to leave cheaper, fixedterm deals for more expensive ones while at the same time grappling with higher insurance costs, energy bills and childcare costs.

“Unfortunately, many people in the last 10 years have been used to very low interest rates,” he said, adding it had made recent rises a shock for those households.

The ONS said yesterday that the part of inflation relating to owner occupiers’ housing costs “rose by 7.4 per cent in the 12 months to October 2024, up from 7.2 per cent in the 12 months to September”. The soaring costs of building materials have also contributed to the biggest rise in homeownership costs since February 1992.