Funding for Lending – Mortgage Approvals on the Rise
There is a positive outlook with regards to the housing market, as British mortgage approvals hit a record high since January, according to figures released by the Bank of England (BoE).
October saw a total of 52,982 mortgages approved for house purchases, a rise from the 50,415 approved in September. This beat the forecasts set by economists who settled on a figure of 51,500 when making projections for October.
It is difficult to determine what this rise should be attributed to, but it seems likely that the Funding for Lending scheme set up earlier in the year by the government will have helped to some degree.
Annalisia Piazza, strategy analyst at Newedge, said: “Mortgage activity seems to have improved a touch in the past few weeks, partially boosted by BoE’s Funding for Lending programme. That said, the level of activity would remain consistent with a relatively sluggish housing market in the coming months”.
The Funding for Lending scheme was introduced as a method of passing low interest rates through the bank to small businesses, as well as consumers looking to invest in property. The BoE would supply these low interest rates to the high street banks, which would then pass them on to their customers, provided it was then invested in the UK economy.
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