Bank mortgage approvals rise 77%
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Figures from the British Bankers Association released today reveal there were 42,088 house purchase approvals in September, up 77% on the same time last year.
This figure was also up from the 40,100 approved in August. Remortgages were still down by almost 60% on 2008 with 21,282 approved in September, compared to 23,506 in August.
David Dooks, statistics director at the BBA, says: “Mortgage lending by the high street banks is continuing to improve from the lows seen earlier this year and the number of house purchase approvals continues to recover. Housing market activity will depend, however, on more properties coming on to the market. Apart from property decisions, further symptoms of subdued consumer confidence are a reduced appetite for unsecured borrowing and more saving.
“Lending to companies continues to be affected by current trading conditions. In perhaps the hardest-hit sectors, related to commercial property and construction, lending levels continue to fall and company borrowing in general remains subdued.”
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Readers' comments (1)
GARY WRIGHT | 23 Oct 2009 2:40 pm
House purchase increases are fantastic news for the mortgage intermediaries that are still left in the industry. However, the largest portion of our income is with re-mortgages. This area is still in dire straights with any hope of an improvement still far away. Unfortunately, prossibly too far away to help more intermediaries before they hit the wall and call it a day.
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