Lending to first-time buyers and home movers increased in February, according to the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML). During the month, 14,100 loans worth £1.7 billion were taken out by first-time buyers, up 8% by number and 6% by value from January and up 18% by number and 21% by value year-on-year. February was the [...]
remortgaging
Mortgage lending figures encouraging
Lending to first-time buyers and home movers increased in February, according to the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML). During the month, 14,100 loans worth £1.7 billion were taken out by first-time buyers, up 8% by number and 6% by value from January and up 18% by number and 21% by value year-on-year. February was the [...]
August mortgage lending lift
Homeowners continued to warm up to remortgaging in August, with data from the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) showing 34,100 loans taken out worth £4.2 billion. Compared with a year earlier both volume and value were up 30%. House purchase lending also rose, with 52,000 loans advanced (worth £7.9 billion), up from 51,000 (worth £7.7 [...]
Mortgage lending loses ground
The Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) has produced another lackluster set of figures, this time illustrating the extent to which the UK housing market lost ground in the year to end-July. Compared with June, lending for house purchase rose by both volume and value in July, to 48,800 and £7.3 billion respectively, but both figures [...]
Scottish housing market manages seasonal spurt
House purchase lending in Scotland rose by more than the UK as a whole in the second quarter of 2011, according to new data from the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML). Scottish home buyers secured 11,300 loans worth £1.3 billion, with the figures up 36% and 42% respectively, compared with the first three months of [...]
Banks’ mortgage lending stable
High Street banks approved 74,590 mortgages in July, up from 71,521 in June and ahead of the previous six-month average (69,803), according to the British Bankers’ Association (BBA). House purchase approvals rose to 33,417 following on from June’s 32,123 and ahead of the previous six-month average (30,695). At £151,500, the value of the typical house [...]
House purchase lending slips in April
UK lenders approved 45,166 mortgages for house purchases in April, Bank of England figures show. The total compares with 47,145 homebuyer loans sanctioned in March, and a previous six-month average of 46,179. In addition, remortgaging approvals declined to 28,091, as fears over interest rate rises subsided (March: 31,201; previous six-month average 32,534). According to the [...]
Mortgage approvals remain subdued
Annual growth in UK banks’ net mortgage lending (gross lending with repayments and redemptions stripped out) stood at 2.2% in April, with gross mortgage lending during the month of £7.9 billion. According to the British Bankers’ Association (BBA), gross lending remained stable compared with the recent six-month average but showed a 5% decline compared with [...]
Interest rate fears drive remortgaging surge
The first three months of the year saw a remortgaging surge, with activity accounting for 37% of the quarter’s lending (up from 30% in the previous quarter), the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) reports. In March, there were 33,900 loans for remortgage, up 16% compared to February and up 17% year-on-year, with the rise linked [...]
House purchase mortgage approval down 10%
The UK’s High Street banks saw net mortgage lending rise by 2.3% in March (or £0.8 billion), compared with a year earlier, as households remained focused on paying down debt. New mortgage lending held up “fairly well” according to the British Bankers’ Association (BBA) but because of of stronger remortgaging (rather than house purchase) activity. [...]
House purchase lending shrinks 12%
Mortgage lending increased only slightly in February, despite a “particularly downbeat” January, the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) reports. There were 32,300 loans for house purchase, worth £4.6 billion. The figures were up 8% by volume and 5% by value from January but down 12% (by both volume and value) on an annual basis. Loans [...]
Rise in home-buyer mortgage approvals
Mortgage approvals for house purchases rose to 46,967 in February, Bank of England figures show. The total compares with 45,723 approvals for January and is slightly ahead of the previous six-month average of 46,413. Approvals for remortgaging increased to 35,725 (January 33,498), also showing an improvement on the previous six-month average of 31,674. Meanwhile, approvals [...]
January mortgage lending down 26%
Mortgage lending plummeted by 26% in January, compared with December, but the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) is keen to explain how an “unusual combination of factors” are to blame.
Putting aside seasonal factors, the lenders’ body reckons the impact of government spending cuts, rising inflation and new tax measures all “discouraged” potential house buyers.
Extreme weather [...]
House purchase lending nudges up
Lenders approved 45,723 mortgages for house purchases in January, new data from the Bank of England show, with the figure slightly up on December’s but below the previous six-month average of 46,686.
Approvals for remortgaging increased to 33,498 (December: 31,561) ahead of the six month average of 30,407, no doubt as homeowners’ anxieties over interest [...]
House purchase mortgage approvals down by almost a third
The UK’s banks saw net mortgage lending (gross lending with repayments and redemptions stripped out) rise slightly in January, compared with December.
However, the British Bankers’ Association reports that while house purchase approvals were also slightly up on a monthly basis (28,932) volumes were down 29% when compared with January 2010.
In addition, the value of the [...]
New mortgage lending shrinks
New mortgage lending shrank in December, by £0.3 billion, compared to a rise £0.5 billion in November and a previous six-month average of plus £0.6 billion, according to Bank of England figures.
The number of loans approved for house purchase declined to 42,563, down from 47,287 in November, and compared with a previous six-month average [...]
“Rate-spoilt” homeowners reluctant to fix
New research from unbiased.co.uk suggests that the average mortgage borrower is only prepared to enter a fixed-rate deal if the interest rate is around 3.3%.
With the Bank of England’s base rate still at 0.5%, the professional advice portal suggests the emergence of a “rate-spoilt” generation, as back in January 2009, a rate of 4% would [...]
Barclays ups “Great Escape” LTV to 80%
Barclays is extending the maximum loan-to-value (LTV) ratio on its Woolwich “Great Escape” remortgage deal from 75% to 80%.
For the higher LTV, the lifetime tracker mortgage is available at base rate +3.18%, whereas the 70% and 75% LTV deals remain at base rate +2.38% and base rate +2.58% respectively.
In addition, borrowers can opt for [...]
Sharp rise in remortgaging approvals
Mortgage lending rose by £0.8 billion in November, with the rate of increase falling back from £1.2 billion in October but remaining slightly above the previous six-month average of £0.7 billion.
The number of approvals for house purchases stood at 48,019 – volumes were up slightly on October and held their own against a previous [...]
Interest rates to “normalise” at around 5%
The UK’s homeowners should begin to prepare for higher interest rates, a Bank of England official has warned.
In an interview with The Daily Telegraph, the bank’s executive director for markets, Paul Fisher, stated that rates need to return to a “normalised” position of around 5%.
Mr Fisher, who is a member of the Bank’s rate-setting Monetary [...]
