Almost a quarter of all homeowners who have mortgages on their property are finding it impossible to move home or get a new mortgage deal. The Council of Mortgage Lenders recently revealed that around 827,000 homeowners owe more on their mortgage than what their home is currently worth. Along with this around 1.7 million mortgage holders have found themselves with less than 10 pc equity in their homes.

A lot of people who took out a mortgage with just a small deposit before the UK was hit by the credit crunch have become trapped in their homes thanks to house prices having fallen. Many are trapped thanks to expensive mortgages and are unable to lower their mortgage repayments. Some are even struggling to meet their mortgage repayments and considering options.

One of these options is to sell the property but with few people having money to buy, this is almost impossible, and of course means the buyer losing out. Another consideration is to enter into a sale and rent back agreement. This again means a loss as typically you sell the property for a lot less than its full value and rent it back for a fixed period of time. At the moment many homeowners are hanging on to the hope that the economy will pick up and house price proves will rise, but how long can they hang on?