LONDON - There was more good news on the horizon in the UK housing market as the Bank of England figures for the month of September show that the number of mortgage approvals has risen to the highest level since June 2004.
The figures also show that the value of the approvals increased to a near two-year peak. The loans approved but not yet lent increased to 107,000 in September up from a downwardly revised 106,000 in the previous month. This number is well above the 86,000 approved at the same time last year, the Bank revealed. The overall value of these approvals including that of remortgaging increased to £27.04 billion. This is again the highest level since November 2003 at a time when the property market was going from strength to strength.
These latest figures substantiate the general feeling that the UK housing market is showing certain signs of revival since the rate cuts in August. "This adds credence to the notion that the housing market has stabilized, with lower interest rate expectations one month ago keeping potential housebuyers plentiful," observed Jonathan Said, an economist at the Centre for Economics and Business Research.
The rate at which consumers availed money through credit cards, loans and overdrafts also came down to £17.79 billion. However credit card lending was slightly weak in September as compared with the previous month's figures.
"This flatness in consumer credit is indicative of the sluggish retail market, however it suggests that consumers have not cut back strongly on their borrowing habits," Said commented. Howard Archer, economist at Global Insight said that September's figures pointed to a prevailing sense of caution among consumers, "This reinforces our belief that consumer spending will remain subdued for some time to come despite September's pick-up in retail sales."
Posted
on : Tue, 01 Nov 2005 10:25 GMT | Mortgages News
By : Rob Davis
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