Mortgage lending plummets in January

by Gill Montia

Gross mortgage lending plummeted in January, adversely affected by the end of the stamp duty holiday.
The Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) puts the gross figure at £9.1 billion, down 32% from £13.4 billion in December and 21% year-on-year.
While a decline is typically experienced between December and January, advances were at their lowest since February 2000 (£7.9 billion), December having received a house purchase boost from those keen to avoid paying stamp duty on homes worth up to £175,000.
While acknowledging that the market improved over the second half of last year, CML economist Paul Samter observes: “We remain in a period of uncertainty for the housing market and economy at large.”
According to Mr Samter, more recent developments have been influenced by the end of the stamp duty holiday but are “likely to foreshadow a larger than usual seasonal drop off in activity in the early part of this year”.
However, he adds: “The Bank of England is likely to keep rates low which should continue to mitigate mortgage payment problems and help cushion borrowers from the worst of the recession.”
Discuss this in the Finance Markets forums
Story link: Mortgage lending plummets in January
Related financial stories to: Mortgage lending plummets in January:
- January mortgage lending down from December, still sets record
- Equity release lending plummets
- New mortgage lending falls away
- New mortgage lending up in January
- Lending for new house purchases plummets
- January rise in mortgage lending
- New mortgage lending up 16%
- Gross mortgage lending up 6% in February
- Euro zone economy growth plummets 1.5%
- New mortgage lending holds steady in January
Next: Manifesto aims to make social enterprise vital to British economy »
No Comments »
No comments yet.
RSS feed for comments on this post.
Leave a comment
Tags: CML, Council of Mortgage Lenders, gross, January, mortgage lending, stamp duty holiday
Visited 1619 times, 6 so far today