Moreover, people with little or no equity in their homes are more likely to walk away and default on their loan.

So beyond having the necessary income to repay what you want to borrow, you may have to prove that you are unlikely to default on your loan.

There could not be a worse time to default on a loan: anyone with a less than perfect credit record will find it increasingly difficult - and expensive - to borrow money.

This could affect them taking possession of it if there was a default on the loan.

We ended up having to withdraw large amounts of money from cash machines to ensure we did not default on the loan.