Repossessions by landlords and mortgage lenders have fallen in the third quarter (Q3) of this year, according to data from the Ministry of Justice.
There were 5,010 mortgage possession claims in the county courts around England and Wales between July and September. This is just under half the amount issued in the same period last year.
In Q3 this year, there were 3,447 orders for possession, 6,252 warrants of possession and 1,419 repossessions by county court bailiffs.
The figures are down 52%, 38% and 49% on Q3 2014 respectively.
Repossession claims by social and private landlords also fell, by 5% on the same quarter last year.
In total, there were 38,662 landlord possession claims, most of which (61%) were from social landlords.
There were 29,197 orders for possession and 19,963 warrants of possession, down 6% and 1% respectively.
However, repossessions by county court bailiffs rose slightly, by 1%, to 11,267.
The increase in the number of actual repossessions by bailiffs is believed to reflect the amount of previous claims working their way through the system.
The average number of weeks between the initial claim and repossession was 41 weeks in Q3 this year.
Despite the drop in repossessions by landlords, homelessness charity Shelter notes that the total number of repossessions in the private rental sector in the year to September increased by 14%, to 22,531 households. It calls for action on homelessness.