End of Stamp Duty holiday prompts December sur
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PAUL SAMTER, REMORTGAGING REMAINS WEAK
A 14% increase in gross mortgage lending in December is being attributed to an increase in the Stamp Duty threshold.
From January 1 the Stamp Duty holiday for properties up to £175,000 ended reverting to £125,000.
Figures from the Council of Mor-tgage Lenders show gross lending defied expectations of a seasonal dip, increasing from £12.1bn in November to £13.7bn in December.
The figure is up 3% on December 2008 and represents the first time the annual monthly comparison has been in positive territory since October 2007.
But Paul Samter, economist at the CML, says: “Evidence suggests that the rise was driven by a surge in house purchase com-pletions, as remortgaging still remains exceptionally weak.
He says: “The most likely explan-ation is that buyers remortgaging remains weakof cheaper prop-erty wanted to com-plete their trans actions before the end of the year to beat the end of the Stamp Duty holiday.”
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