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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House prices have risen unexpectedly since the start of the year, according to January’s monthly report from the Halifax. Halifax admitted to being confounded by the figures, which contradicted expectations that prices would show a further drop after falling steadily throughout 2008. Instead the report shows that the average price of a home in the UK has risen by 1.9% since the end of last year. It is the first rise in the prices of property for sale since January last year, when prices rose by just 0.1%.

A Halifax spokesman said that although the figures do show early signs of the housing market beginning to stabilize at a low level the property market was probably still likely to have a difficult year. He also said that the three-month figures, which are generally a better indicator of trends in the market, show an overall drop in prices of 5.2%. For now, it would seem the Halifax report is the exception to the rule – their rival lenders Nationwide reported a 1.3% drop in prices for January, a figure much closer to predictions.

These nationwide figures are unlikely to affect most local property markets and most are still seeing the reduced prices we would expect from a country in recession. The cost of property for sale in Sussex is closer to reflecting the expected drop in prices than the surprise increases of the Halifax report. It would seem although we could be seeing the first signs that the property market is beginning a slow recovery, there is still a way to go yet before things are back to normal.

The anomaly of the Halifax report could be partly explained by the recent boom in some areas of London, which has just been listed as the third most expensive city in the world (after Monte Carlo and Moscow) in the World’s Most Expensive Residential Real Estate Markets 2008. Prices in London have risen partly due to overseas buyers attracted by lower prices and a weak pound.