Summer brings mortgage lending back up to speed

Thu 13 Aug 2015

Lending for house purchase picked up dramatically in June, rising 22% over May’s figure.

Nevertheless the overall figure of 61,000 house purchase loans was down 1% compared with June last year.

Mortgage lending to home movers was up 21.1% on a monthly basis but only 0.3% on an annual basis; loans to first-time buyers rose 22% on the month, but were down 2.4% compared with a year ago.

In contrast, remortgaging shot up 31% on the month and 34% on the year while buy-to-let loans for house purchase were up 40% on the year, and 17% on the month.

Altogether in the second quarter of this year, there were 160,100 house purchase loans, up 21.6% from the first quarter, but lagging 7.7% behind the second quarter last year.

The figures are from the Council of Mortgage Lenders.

ROSALIND RENSHAW, AUGUST 13 2015, www.propertyindustryeye.com