Hundreds of thousands of British homeowners are set to experience a serious financial shock their fixed-rate mortgage deal expires over the course of this year, it has been asserted.

Reflecting on its own data and that from the Council of Mortgage Lenders, Nationwide has suggested that up to 1.8 million homeowners could soon find themselves with a greater mortgage-related debt management burden.

However, despite the money problems set to cause difficulties around the country, the building society has aimed to make clear that the housing market is not in such bad shape as it was in the 1990s, when fixed-rate mortgage deals were uncommon.

"Some groups of borrowers will certainly feel the effects of higher mortgage rates but around 85 per cent of borrowers will be seeing no impact," said Fionnuala Earley, Nationwide’s chief economist.

Earlier this week, the Centre for Economics and Business Research predicted that the number of homes being repossessed in the UK will be 25 per cent higher this year than was the case in 2007.