More mortgages available

This week the Bank of England released figures showing that mortgage availability has increased ‘slightly’ in the second quarter this year and is expected to increase further during the third quarter.

This is good news for the housing and mortgage market as it is the first increase since 2007.

However, this increase in availability was really for those with less than a 75 per cent loan-to-value. For those with less than a 25 per cent deposit, this might not seem such good news but it could indicate the bottoming of the downturn.

Howard Archer, chief UK economist at IHS Global Insight, said: “The Bank of England survey encouragingly indicates that credit conditions may finally be beginning to improve. While latest hard data still indicates muted lending to corporates and households, the Bank of England survey boosts hopes that the various policy measures undertaken by both the central bank and the government to boost bank lending – including quantitative easing – are starting to feed through to have a beneficial impact.”

It is hoped by all that if this indicates that the credit crunch is finally easing then it may be a sign that the economy’s strait jacket might also ease off, which is good news for the mortgages market.

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