Buy-to-let mortgage arrears increased in the second quarter of 2023, according to UK Finance figures discussed by LandlordZONE that August. The reported total was 8,980 loans with arrears of at least 2.5% of the outstanding balance. That was 28% above the previous quarter.
The threshold is important. It described the amount overdue relative to the remaining loan balance, rather than the interest rate or the proportion of all landlords in difficulty. A mortgage count is also different from a count of people: one owner may have more than one loan.
The source said around half of the affected loans fell into the lowest arrears band covered, between 2.5% and 5% of the balance. That band had risen particularly quickly. The account therefore drew attention to early signs of strain without establishing that every case would progress to possession.
For comparison, it reported 81,900 homeowner mortgages above the same 2.5% threshold, with a quarterly increase of about 7%. The absolute totals and growth rates answered different questions. A faster percentage increase in the smaller buy-to-let group did not mean it contained more loans than the homeowner group.
UK Finance’s Sonia Fernandes cautioned that percentage movements could appear large from a low starting base, while recognising the increase as a genuine concern. The article also distinguished missed mortgage payments from missed rent: the two were not necessarily occurring together in the cases lenders were seeing.
A comment about lenders’ usual treatment of sitting tenants appeared in the original report. This retrospective does not turn that general observation into a guarantee about an individual tenancy, a possession process or a lender’s decision. The actual circumstances and applicable rules remain separate from the aggregate statistics.
These are archived second-quarter 2023 figures, not the latest arrears position. The story illustrates why the reporting date, threshold and unit of measurement need to accompany a financial headline. Mortgages in arrears, landlords experiencing strain and properties repossessed are related subjects, but they are not interchangeable counts.