“Substantially” fewer people defaulting on mortgages

The number of people defaulting on their mortgages showed a "substantial" decline over the past six months. The group that is more than 120 days behind on their payments shrank with 2,215 to 110,466 people, according to figures credit registration office BKR released on Thursday, NU.nl reports. Arrears on mortgages increased significantly since the financial crisis, which started in 2008. The first, small decline was seen in October last year. "We hope that this current decrease we will eventually get back to the level before the crisis. In 2009, approximately 40 thousand people were struggling to meet their mortgage payments", Peter van den Bosch, managing director of BKR, said in a comment. The credit registration office emphasized that the registered mortgage defaults is only a small part of the overall debt problem. People are also behind on payments to the Tax authorities, hosing associations, health insurers, energy suppliers etc. "If someone is in arrears on, for example, an energy or rent and applies for a loan, that arrears is not automatically clear to the lender. While this information is important to avoid greater financial difficulties." Van den Bosch said. BKR is therefore calling for debts to be registered centrally. The organization also wants better cooperation between government agencies, commercial parties and welfare organizations so that debt and payment problems can be identified faster.