UK mortgage lending continues to rise
A report by the Council of Mortgage Lenders in the UK has today confirmed that mortgage lending has risen for the third month in a row despite the fact that the UK property market is going through something of a difficult patch. Over £13 billion was made available to the UK mortgage market in July, which was a 5% increase from the previous month, although this figure is around 4% down on the corresponding period last year. So is this a change in bank lending and mortgage lending?
There is no doubt that banks and building societies, and other mortgage providers, have been under intense pressure from the government and various housing bodies over the last few months. However, many people believe that it would have been more relevant for net mortgage lending to have increased when the property market was doing better only a few months ago. Unfortunately, there is a growing belief that the UK property sector is poised for a very difficult period in the short to medium term and this ongoing increase in net mortgage lending may well have come too late.
A number of observers are watching the new buyer market very closely because ultimately this could hold the key to future prosperity in the UK property market. At this moment in time first time buyers are being effectively priced out of the market place because of higher than average deposit demands.
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