May brought large mortgage borrowing rise

July 6, 2021 by Brendan O'Neill

Borrowers

The latest figures to be released by the Bank of England show that there was a significant rise in the net mortgage borrowing total for May, compared with the month before.

According to these figures, net mortgage borrowing hit £6.6 billion for May, whereas in April, it was just £3 billion. The Bank of England is stating that the May total is above the average for the first six months of 2021, with that standing at £6.4 billion, and it is also higher than the £4.2 billion average for the period March 2019 to February 2020.

This was not the only positive figure for May, as there was also a month-on-month increase in the number of approvals for house purchases. This figure rose to 87,500 for the whole of May, whereas in April, it was 86,900.

There was a similar small increase in the number of remortgages that were approved, with May seeing 34,800, compared with 33,400 during April.

The Managing Director of Coreco, Andrew Montlake, told Mortgage Strategy that the May rise in mortgage approvals had happened even though there was little hope of completing purchases before the end of the stamp duty holiday. He then added:

“This shows that record low borrowing rates and the radical shift to homeworking have been as much a driver of transaction levels as tax savings.”

Those who have finished CeMAP training and are entering the industry will hope that demand among buyers and low mortgage rates from lenders keep activity at a high level in the coming months.