Mortgage approvals rise to highest level since April 2008

July 30, 2009 by Brendan O'Neill

News

Genuine signs of an upturn in the housing market have emerged in the latest figures released by the Bank of England. The figures show that mortgage approvals stood at 47,584 for June, which is an increase from the total of 44,169 from May. It’s also the highest number of mortgage approvals since April 2008, 14 months.

The rise in June represents the fifth consecutive month that mortgage approvals have gone up, which signifies a definite upturn in the property industry. However the levels are still far below those seen at the peak of the property market which indicates that the market has some way to go before making a full recovery.

Analyst Chris Skinner added:

Demand is flat because potential buyers believe that the bottom of the market has not been reached yet.

According to Mr Skinner, buyers were breaking house chains because they feel that prices will fall further, even though banks have started to make mortgages easier to come by.

According to figures from the Bank of England, £343 million was lent to mortgage customers in June, which was a slight increase on May’s total.

UBS economist Amit Kara echoed the belief that the property market is starting to pick up:

I think the mortgage approvals data suggests that the market is improving gradually, and in our view it will continue to improve over the next coming months.

This in part because there is resilient demand, but also because Northern Rock and some of the other banks are being encouraged to lend.

Signs of a market upturn spell good news for those undertaking CeMAP training, with banks more likely to lend to property buyers.