Press
Mortgage Strategy 2nd May 2006
Latest research confirms significant rise in lending
Intermediaries have agreed with data released by the British Bankers' Association (BBA) and the Building Societies Association (BSA), which has pointed to a significant increase in mortgage lending over the last quarter.
The BBA said net mortgage lending rose by an underlying £5.4bn in March, compared to an increase of £4.7bn in February. It reported net mortgage lending had risen by an average of £4.9bn over the previous six months.
The BSA has revealed building society gross advances increased from £3.5bn in March 2005 to £4.2bn in March this year. And over the same period, net advances increased from £781m to £815m.
Adrian Coles, director-general of the BSA, said: "Lending activity is well up on a year ago, suggesting building societies are taking a significant share as the market recovers relatively strongly this spring."
Commenting, Craig Taylor, director at IFA Jordan Fishwick Financial Services, said the firm had experienced another month of record mortgage business. Taylor said: "From right across our branches, we have all noticed a marked increase in business."
And James Carter, IFA at Virtue Financial, said he had also been 'exceptionally busy'. He said: "Last year it seemed a lot of people were holding fire to see what happened and whether the market was going to crash. Certainly with stability in the market and with interest rates, people appear to be re-entering the market."
The announcement of strong mortgage lending came as a decrease in unsecured personal lending was reported by the BBA. It claimed unsecured personal lending fell by £0.4bn in March compared with an average rise of £0.5bn in the previous six months.
David Dooks, director of statistics at the BBA, said: "The contrast between stronger mortgage lending and net repayments of unsecured borrowing has suggested individuals are optimistic about the housing market, though careful about card borrowing, overdrafts or taking on personal loans."
Bob Sturges, director of communications at Money Partners, said: "These latest figures confirm what we have been saying for some time, that while overall levels of personal indebtedness remain historically high, consumers are managing it well. Moreover, they are clearly making a distinction between secured and unsecured forms of borrowing, with the continuing popularity of the former indicative of continuing confidence in the housing market."