Halifax said last Saturday (18 April) was this year’s UK Mortgage Freedom Day.
It is calculated as the date when the average new borrower – covering both first-time buyers and home movers – will have paid off their annual mortgage payments. It is calculated on the basis that all their earnings from the 1st January are devoted to mortgage payments until these annual payments have been paid in full.
Based on the average annual mortgage repayment cost of £7,567 and the average net annual income of £25,588, Halifax has calculated that those with a mortgage will have today earned enough on average to cover their mortgage payments for the rest of 2015.
Mortgage Freedom Day this year occurs eight days later than in 2014 (10 April), and is the result of net annual income decreasing by £15 since last year while the average annual mortgage repayment increasing by £613 over the same period.
Craig McKinlay, mortgage director of Halifax, said: “While monthly mortgage and rental costs account for the majority of many people’s household budgets, Mortgage Freedom Day provides a different perspective on how much we spend on these costs over the course of a year.
“Our research shows that today, if people had put everything they’d earned since the start of the year towards their mortgage, the average homeowner would be mortgage free for the remainder of the year.”
New borrowers in Renfrewshire recorded the earliest Mortgage Freedom Day in 2015, on 28 February. Eight of the ten earliest Mortgage Freedom Days this year take place in Scotland, such as in North Larnarkshire (28th February) and West Dunbartonshire (1st March). The remaining two are in Northern Ireland; including Larne (2nd March) and Ballymoney (5th March).
The first local authority in England to record Mortgage Freedom Day is in Swindon in Wiltshire (8 April).