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Mortgage lending increases in February

Thursday, 31 March 2011 8:54 AM

Mortgage lending to UK consumers increased in February, according to the Bank of England.

Figures released today show that the number of loan approvals for house purchases increased to 46,967, which was up on the last six months' average of 46,413.

The Bank also reported that approvals for remortgaging were up from the half-year average of 31,674 recorded in January to 35,725.

For those able to put together a deposit, current fixed-rate mortgage deals remain attractive, but speculation about forthcoming rate rises may be encouraging consumers to sign up to mortgage deals sooner rather than later.

However, Howard Archer, chief UK economist at analysts IHS Global Insight, said: "This is consistent with our view that house prices are likely to continue to trend down gradually over the coming months. Specifically, we suspect that house prices will fall by around five per cent in 2011 and end up losing around ten per cent from the peak levels seen in the first half of 2010."

The Building Societies Association reports that gross mortgage lending by mutual approvals was £1.5 billion in February, compared to £1.2 billion in February 2010.

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