Home owner and buy-to-let repossessions jumped in the third quarter of 2019.

UK Finance figures show that 1,330 home owner mortgaged properties were taken into possession, up 19% annually, while 800 buy-to-let mortgaged properties were repossessed, up 40%.

UK Finance said these figures were still below levels seen between 2009 and 2014 and were partly due to regulatory changes when it comes to lending.

The trade body said: “Lenders continue to show flexibility to borrowers in financial difficulty and possession is always a last resort.”

Its data showed that arrears remained at historic lows.

The proportion of home owner mortgages in arrears of 2.5% or more fell 9% annually to 71,590.

Within the total, there were 22,300 home owner mortgages with more significant arrears of more than 10%, which was 8% fewer than in the same quarter of 2018.

In the buy-to-let sector, there were 4,550 mortgages in arrears of 2.5% or more, down 5%.

Of these, there were 1,170 buy-to-let mortgages with arrears of more than 10%, down 1% on a year ago.