News

Mortgage lending falls to lowest for nearly a year
Lenders approved the fewest number of house purchase mortgages in almost a year during May.
The latest Bank of England data shows that mortgage approvals for house purchase dropped to 61,707 in May from 62,806 in April, throughout the UK.
The figure compares with January’s figure of 75,901 and a pre-credit crunch average of over 100,000 approvals per month, and comes after the Mortgage Market Review (MMR) introduced strict new affordability rules.
House purchase approvals have fallen for four consecutive months since January’s high. Including remortgaging and other advances, there were 99,805 approvals in May – down 5.6% from May of last year.
Credit ratings agency Moody’s said mortgage interest rates could increase by 2-3% over the next two or three years, while Bank of England deputy governor Charlie Bean said in a television interview on Sunday that it would be reasonable to assume rates would rise around the end of the year.
I think the fear of interest rates and the lack of salary increases are holding potential buyers back at the moment. As the economy recovers job security is returning, but we will need to see a rise in salary’s throughout the Country to witness the London effect.
We continue to amend our marketing of properties to try to catch the eye of viewers, we are getting interest, but many have yet to sell and have the added worry of being able to replace their mortgage under the new stricter rules. You would think if someone afforded their mortgage through the last 5 years of recession, the banks would look favorably. I’m sure the new rules will find some commonsense in the near future.