People moving house in July spent 14.4% of their income on mortgage interest, the highest proportion since November 2008, according to UK Finance. The figure rose from 13.5% a year earlier and was double the 7.8% recorded four years ago. The data cover borrowers who previously held a mortgage, meaning they were upsizing or downsizing rather than buying their first home. Their average age was 41, indicating that many were families. They are excluded from Andy Burnham’s new Your First Home scheme, which offers first-time buyers a 20% government-backed equity loan for new-build homes. Savills estate agent Lucian Cook said second-steppers, or buyers moving beyond their first property, were struggling to trade up, particularly where flat owners had seen their housing equity eroded. New mortgage rates reached 4.65% in August, according to Bank of England data, while house prices fell 3.3% year on year in July, limiting the benefit of accumulated property wealth. Including capital repayments, home movers devoted 21.2% of income to mortgage bills in July, the highest level since 2008. They took out loans averaging a record 26.7 years, spreading repayments over longer periods but increasing total interest costs. Existing mortgage holders’ share of new loans has fallen to 45% from 65% in 2012, while mortgage approvals for home purchases declined to 54,900 in the latest Bank of England data, their lowest level since December 2023.