21
Feb
MORTGAGE LENDING UP ON A YEAR AGO.
UK mortgage lending picked up in January compared with the same
month a year earlier, lenders' figures show.
However, the usual seasonal fall meant lending was down on
December, the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) said.
Gross mortgage lending stood at £10.5bn in January, down
12% on December but up 10% on January 2011.
This was the sixth month in a row of higher year-on-year
lending, the CML said, but it warned that this was from very low
levels of activity.
"The recent improvement in housing and mortgage market sentiment
is welcome," said CML chief economist Bob Pannell.
"But we should be careful not to overstate its significance,
given the very low levels of activity we are starting from and the
protracted and difficult economic rebalancing that the UK and other
countries have embarked upon."
Some of the extra activity could be the result of first-time
buyers trying to get onto the housing ladder before the stamp-duty
concession ended, Mr Pannell added.
The 1% stamp duty rate for first-time buyers, on properties
worth between £125,000 and £250,000, is being
reintroduced on 24 March.
Last week, the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors reported
that its members expected sales of homes in England and Wales to
rise in the final weeks of a stamp duty holiday.
Meanwhile, the CML said that the falling inflation rate, were it
to continue, would reduce the squeeze on household finances and
assist activity in the housing market in the future.