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Bank of England mortgage approvals
Commenting on the latest Bank of England mortgage approvals,
RICS chief economist Simon Rubinsohn said: “Today’s
numbers from the Bank of England provide confirmation that
mortgage lending activity took a tumble in January. The
number of mortgages approved was the lowest since May last
year. The ending of the stamp duty holiday on properties
valued between £125 and £175k clearly had some
impact on activity but the scale of the drop suggests that
the adverse weather conditions may have played an even bigger
role. This is consistent with the comments or surveyors
responding to the January RICS Housing Market survey.
Our judgement is that this downturn in transactions will
prove temporary and that buyer interest will have rebounded
in the February data. Lack of mortgage finance, or the requirement
for relatively large deposits, remains an issue as does
the absence of sufficient good quality properties for sale.
Even so, we still expect the number of mortgage approvals
granted per month to quickly climb back to the high 50,000s
seen at the back end of last year. Over the course of 2010,
this figure should gradually climb to nearer 70,000.”
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