The results of a month by month survey today shows that
mortgage lending has hit its highest level so far this year. This is further evidence that the
housing market in the UK is stable.
The survey conducted by the
British Bankers Association revealed that gross
mortgage lending in June totalled £16.5bn, the highest total this year.
Although June's figures were up on May's £14.3bn, there were still a difference of 9percent compared to June 2004.
The BBA found that seasonally adjusted net mortgage lending (gross lending less repayments) rose by £4.6bn, up on May's £4.5bn but down on the £5.6bn recorded in 2004.
A further illustration of an improvement in the lending market was the number of approvals for
mortgages in June this year being higher than May's figures. In June there were 195,242 approvals with a value of £17.9bn. Although this showed an increase of 5 percent on May's figure it was still down by 17 percent on June 2004.
David Dooks, the BBA's director of statistics said "Whilst growth in mortgage lending has slowed to an annual rate last seen in 2002, higher volumes of loan approvals in June mirror the stronger seasonal pattern, showing that there is stable underlying demand for loans."
In other areas, the BBA found that lending on
loans and
overdrafts was very low in seasonally adjusted terms. The last time the monthly increase was so small was December 1994.
Borrowing on
credit cards, stood at £0.3bn, which was stronger than the £0.1bn average over the last six months.
