The number of homeowners unable to afford to live in their homes has almost doubled in a year.
Citizens Advice said the number of people it was seeing on “negative budgets” had soared to 40,000 a month.
On average, the charity said, mortgage holders had a negative budget of about £120 a month — significantly higher than those in social housing or the private rental sector.
There has also been a large increase in people unable to afford their rent, with buy-to-let landlords in particular raising their charges to cover higher mortgage payments, and others without mortgages raising their rents to stay in line with the market.
The aggregate wealth of British households has dropped by £2.1tn in cash terms, the report by the Resolution Foundation think-tank estimated.
UK households’ wealth comprised 650% of national income in early 2023, down by nearly 200 percentage points since early 2021, the report said.
But the think-tank added that this could bring the ratio of house prices to earnings down from its 2022 peak of 8.9 to 5.6.
