The Bank of England (BoE) has released new figures showing that net mortgage borrowing for July was £5.1 billion, which marks only a small drop from the total for June.
During that month it was £5.3 billion and, while the totals for both June and July were below the 2022 mortgage borrowing peak month of May, they were still comfortably higher than the average for the year up to the Covid-19 crisis. During that 12-month spell, the net mortgage borrowing average for the UK was £4.3 billion.
That makes the July figure encouraging for those worried that the market might crash in the wake of the rising cost of living. Further adding to this positive impression is the gross lending total for July in the new Money and Credit study from the BoE. The total for the month was £26.1 billion, compared with £24.6 billion during June.
There was also a small rise in the number of lender approvals for property purchases during July compared with June, from 63,200 to 63,800. This can often serve as a sign of future borrowing levels.
Speaking to Mortgage Introducer, Just Mortgages national operations director John Phillips stated that:
“Despite predictions of doom and gloom, the housing market once again performed strongly with net borrowing in July only decreasing slightly from June and still £1 billion above the pre-pandemic average.”
Advisors with the CeMAP mortgage advisor qualification will be pleased to see new borrower numbers staying at a strong level alongside the expected rise in remortgaging.
