May brought rise in mortgage approval numbers

July 6, 2025 by Brendan O'Neill

News

Property Market

The latest figures show that the number of residential purchase approvals went up during May, marking the first rise in the number that we have seen in 2025.

This data was published by the Bank of England (BoE) and it shows that net approval numbers for May were 63,000. This is 2,400 more than the figure for the previous month.

It also means that May is the first month this year to produce a rise in residential purchase approvals. The last month before it where they went up was December of 2024.

The May increases weren’t limited to residential purchases either, as the month brought a rise in remortgage approvals too – which went up by 6,200. This took the total for the month to 41,500. It was also the biggest single month-on-month increase since February.

In addition to this, there were increases in both net and gross mortgage lending. The former hit £2.1 billion for the month, which makes for a striking contrast with April. That month saw net lending contract by £0.8 billion.

When it comes to gross lending, the total for May was £20.4 billion. By comparison, it was £16.9 billion for April.

Nathan Emerson from Propertymark spoke to Mortgage Introducer about the figures. He said that it was an encouraging sign for the market, before adding:

“It is one of the loudest signals of them all regarding consumer affordability, and it is also a massive vote of confidence from lenders in the longer-term prospects of the economy too.”

This should keep demand high for CeMAP training courses.