UK mortgage lending 'levels off'

Published 26th Aug 2008

UK mortgage lending by the major banks levelled off in July but the amount borrowed for day-to-day spending slowed, new figures show.

Mortgage lending rose by £4.3bn during July - the same amount as June, said the British Bankers' Association (BBA).
But a low number of mortgage approvals overall prompted a warning about predicting a housing market recovery.
The rise in personal consumer credit rose by £0.1bn in July, down from the £0.3bn rise in June.

Approvals
The figures for mortgages approved, but not yet actually lent, are considered a good indicator of near-term trends in the market.

The number of mortgages approved for house purchases rose very slightly from 22,369 in June to 22,448 in July, but this was still 65% lower than the same month a year ago.
For those remortgaging, mortgages approved fell from 58,624 in June to 54,532 in July - a 21% fall on a year ago.

The BBA's members account for about two-thirds of mortgage lending and the association's statistics director David Dooks warned about focusing too much on the monthly trend.
"It would be premature to think that the housing market will now start to recover, because overall approval activity continues to be very low," he said.

Source: ' BBC News '

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