Mortgage Approval Rates Increase by 4%
The total number of mortgage approvals for March this year has risen by 4% on the previous month and reached 39,230, and according to new figures released by the Bank of England, the rise in mortgage approvals might carry on going up.
With the extra 4% approved mortgages, the total cost of all the mortgages in March came to £4.6 billion which is an increase on the previous month of £900 million, however, this is only a small amount compared to the estimated montly average of £1.6 billion, it didn’t even meet the increase that was seen in February of £1.5 billion, however, the total amount of money approved through mortgages in March, £4.6 billion, was well over the 6 month average.
There was also some encouraging news from the building societies, the amount of mortgages that have been approved in March has risen to £1,542 million compared to the amount in February of £742 million.
And finally, the British Bankers Association has also released some figures, regarding lending rates to small businesses. Their figures showed how lending from banks to small businesses had risen by £271 million in March. However, these figures do not match with the results that the Treasury Committee released saying how small businesses are finding it harder to borrow money from the banks.
These figures may sound good, however, mortgage approvals is forward thinking, we should be more concerned with actual mortgage lending, which in March rose by £800 million, however, this is much less than anticipated, and a lot less than the monthly average.2 billion.
All these figures may be good news for the economy and housing market, there are still a range of concerns about house prices and how they could slump again, however, even if they didn’t the economy is still in a delicate state of balance.
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Tags: banks, estate agents, house prices, housing market, mortgages