A further 13% of brokers said most of the clients in arrears they see are specialist borrowers, while 8% said they saw a rise in the number of sub- prime borrowers looking for help.
The remaining respondents (54%) said that they did not have any customers in arrears coming to see them for advice.
Jo Gill, head of PR at HML said: “It’s not surprising to see more prime borrowers struggling with arrears as the majority of new lending has been prime since the credit crunch.
“Usually, sub-prime arrears rates tend to peak every 24 months after the recession hits while prime arrears peak every 40-41 months. We are now entering that 40-month peak where we will begin to see more arrears cases from prime borrowers.”
She added that the public sector cuts will also push up the number of prime customers in arrears.
“We are potentially going to see a rise in repossessions this year. For 2011, we can expect the figure to be around 33,000, but this could reach between 35,000 to 40,000 in 2012,” she added.
However, Lindsay Hopkins, director of brokerage Trafalgar Square Overseas said that the number of prime borrowers in arrears has not been rising.
He said: “We are not seeing an increase in prime borrowers going into arrears. What we’re seeing is a reticence from lenders to allow split capital and ISA repayment arrangements or capital and pension mortgages.
“We have seen many occasions where the help and support staff don’t understand these structures, where borrowers are quite rightly looking at all methods available for repaying their mortgage at the end of the term.”
Hopkins added that the number of prime borrowers going into arrears could rise along with every rate rise.
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