Mortgage approvals could hit 70,000 by year end

19 January 2010 | By Natalie Thomas

An influential poll conducted by Reuters shows that on average monthly mortgage approvals are predicted to hit the 65,000 mark within the next six months.

Experts predict this will have climbed to an average 70,000 a month by the year end.

Up to 31 key industry players contributed to the poll, which forecasts how the UK housing market will look in a year’s time.

House purchase approvals stood at 60,518 in November, according to the latest data available from the Bank of England.

This was the highest level for approvals since March 2008.

Over the six months to November monthly house purchase approvals averaged 52,776.

House prices are predicted to rise an average of 1.6% during this year, increasing by 2.5% during 2011.

Respondents who were more pessimistic believe that house prices will fall by a total of 10.5% this year, and fall a further 8% in 2011.

But surprisingly the optimists among those polled think that house prices could rise by as much as 12.5% in the course of this year, followed by another 13% rise in 2011.

The firms contributing to the poll were: 4Cast, Action Economics, Bank of Ireland, BNP Paribas, Barclays Capital, Capital Economics, CEBR, Citi, Council of Mortgage Lenders, Deutsche Bank, Experian, Fathom Consulting, Fortis Bank, Hometrack, IHS Global Insight, ING Financial Markets, Investec, Item Club, John Charcol, Monument Securities, Moody’s Economy.com, Nationwide, Natixis, NIESR, PwC, Rabobank, RBC, RICS, Rightmove Plc, Schroders, SEB and West LB.

 

 

 

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