July mortgage approvals 65% down over the year

The British Bankers’ Association (BBA) has released data on lending for July, showing that 22,448 mortgages were approved during the month.

The figure is slightly ahead of June’s when 22,369 home loan applications were successful but represents a 65% decline on July 2007.

It is also well below the average for the six months to the end of June, which stands at 34,104.

The BBA says the number of mortgages for house purchases approved continued to be very low while approvals for remortgaging fell.

In terms of value, seasonally adjusted net mortgage lending for July remained parallel with June, at £4.3 billion, but compared with the six-month average of £4.8 billion.

The BBA’s director of statistics, David Dooks, warns that while approvals seem to have levelled off in July this is not necessarily an indicator that the housing market will begin a recovery.

Earlier this month, the Council of Mortgage Lenders reported that gross mortgage lending rose slightly in July but remained 27% lower than a year earlier.

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