The position of the owner of an asset the value of which is less than the amount of debt secured by a mortgage on it. For example, a house owner with a mortgage of £100 000 on a house whose market value is only £90 000 has negative equity of £10 000. The providers of mortgage finance do not lend more than they believe the security is worth, but negative equity can occur if house prices fall after a mortgage is taken out, as occurred in the UK in the early 1990s and the late 2000s, or if borrowers get into arrears on their repayments.