Wednesday, May 27, 2009
"Increase in mortgage approvals vital to lift the housing market out of its depressed state"
FT: Mortgage lending reaches lowest level for 8 years
Mortgage lending from the high street banks reached its lowest level for eight years in April to stand at just £2.7bn, however, there were more promising signs for mortgage approvals.According to the latest figures from the British Bankers' Association (BBA), gross mortgage lending was down 52.4 per cent on the same period in 2008. It has also dropped from £ 8.7bn in March to £7.9bn in April. Although the BBA added that mortgage approvals for house purchases increased by 4 per cent over the month, from 26,671 in March to 27,685 in April, implying a faint sign that the house purchase side of the market may be stabilising.
Posted by jack c @ 01:57 PM (587 views) Add Comment
3 Comments
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1. mark wadsworth said...
It may well be down 50% - 60% compared to April or May 2008, that's not of interest - what we need to know is how much it's down compared to April or May 2007 when the money was still gushing and house prices were still rising.
2. stillthinking said...
2.7 billion supports 18,000 purchases at 150K each. There are 22 million permanent dwellings in the UK.
There isn't the money there to even credibly hold onto prices today. How about this;
avg. house price x transactions = total bank lending
So total bank lending is falling, transactions have no place to go but up.... so....
3. crunchy said...
The money is going into the markets it is the safest place right now, because they is liquid innit, and the banks now have more margin.
No suprises that the pound lately has been childs play to trade and other markets are just as predictable.
The money men will not tie their money up on long term losing investments. I don't blame them, as I would do exactly the same.
For how long? For as long as it takes. Relax!