According to the British Bankers' Association, the month of February saw net mortgage lending recover by £4.8bn, £600m stronger than January and £300m better than the average £4.5bn of the past six months.
This upturn in the amount of lending helped lift lulled spirits regarding the property market, even though the net credit card lending amounts were seen to decline.
The claims to a recuperating housing market came from recent house price surveys.
For instance, Lender Nationwide stated that property prices had risen in February after recent monthly falls and reports from the National Association of Estate Agents and Hometrack showed that the market had slightly relaxed from the incessant price falls over the second half of last year.
To this, the BBA decided not to get very excited and indicated towards the decline in the net credit card lending, which had left the overall lending figures almost at the same level as the past months. With credit card borrowing taking only a £100m climb, the BBA described the figure as ‘very weak’.
Overall, as Howard Archer, chief UK economist at research firm Global Insight puts it, the current price data and facts from various surveys only seemed to imply that the housing market was taking it easy and was trying hard to avert sharp moves.
Posted
on : Fri, 18 Mar 2005 00:00 GMT | Mortgages News
By : Mark Richardson
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