Mortgage sector predicted to keep growing this year

January 26, 2021 by Brendan O'Neill

Property Market

A new Intermediary Mortgage Lenders Association (IMLA) report indicates that the upcoming year will bring continued growth for the mortgage sector, despite the pandemic.

This report is called “The New Normal” and it looks at the expected effects of COVID-19 on the mortgage industry. In the report, the IMLA forecasts that there will be an increase in the gross mortgage lending total, with this expected to hit £283 billion during 2021. It also argues that there will be a rise in spending per household throughout the UK, once the national lockdown and other COVID-19 restrictions are relaxed.

The reason the IMLA expects this spending to rise after the loosening of restrictions is because it believes the ongoing support offered by the government will mitigate the economic impacts of COVID-19 and keep most households on an even keel financially.

In looking at the mortgage sector, the report makes the point that there was a big drop in the number of borrowers who were deferring mortgage payments during the second half of last year – from over 1.8 million during June to 127,000 in the middle of November.

There was also a significant fall in the number of borrowers who were in arrears of between three and six months with their mortgages during the third quarter of last year, which was down to 0.28%. This has led the IML to conclude that there will be no major arrears problem for the sector this year.

The outlook appears rosy for the industry, which is likely why CeMAP course numbers keep going up.