Homeowners in Newcastle take longer to clear their mortgages than anywhere else in the Northeast, taking 14.2 years to pay off their mortgage, according to a study by mortgage specialists at Bower Home Finance.
The figure makes Newcastle the slowest-clearing area within a region that otherwise performs well nationally. The Northeast as a whole has the second-quickest mortgage repayment times in the UK, with a median duration of nearly 11 years, the study found. County Durham was named as the Northeast area with the quickest repayment time, at 9.1 years.
The company said it drew on Office for National Statistics figures for median house prices and median yearly salaries across England, Scotland and Wales, then worked out how long it would take two full-time earners on median pay to clear a mortgage on a typically priced property, assuming 30% of their combined net monthly income went on repayments.
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Across the UK, Scotland was identified as the nation with the shortest overall mortgage repayment times, with a median duration of around 10.5 years, according to the study. London, by contrast, was named as the region with the highest mortgage repayment time, with a median duration of over 39 years. The Southeast was found to have the second-highest repayment time in the UK, at nearly 30 years, while the East of England had the third-highest, at a median of 26.5 years.
Geoff Charles, chief executive of Bower Home Finance, said: “What really stands out in the study is how much cheaper properties are in Scotland, with a median property price of £183,000.”
He also said overpayments “can be a really quick way to clear your mortgage in certain cases”, though he noted that homeowners should check with their lender over any penalty-free overpayment limits before doing so.