Mortgage approvals rise, says Bank of England

Tue, 05 May 2009

New figures show that mortgage approvals have risen by four per cent in March, higher than figures for February and the six-month average.

The Bank of England has reported that 39,230 mortgages were approved in March, remortgages were up to 31,746 and building societies saw a rise in mortgage approvals to £1,542 million in March, compared to £742 million the previous month.

Although the statistics are positive, some experts have said that this does not mean that the housing market is picking up and that the mortgage environment is still challenging.

Jonathon Loynes, from Capital Economics, told the BBC that the news "was a bit better than expected and will fuel recent talk that the housing market has stabilised, but approvals remain at a level consistent with further sharp falls in house prices ".

February statistics from the Bank saw an increase in net lending secured on housing compared to the previous month, leading to the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors saying it was proof that interest was feeding through into actual activity.
add to favouritesnewsletterlink to this pagesend to friendpost comments

Link to this page

Copy and Paste the following HTML into your page.