Press
FT Adviser 22nd June 2006
Spring lending boost
The figures indicate a late spring boom, following the stability of the first few months of the year. AWD Moneyextra said that it was too early to tell whether the upswing indicated the start of a new trend in the market. Some experts have predicted a surge in home sales to beat the introduction of home information packs (HIPs) in a year's time.
The IFA firm reported a jump in mortgage activity amounting to a rise of more than 27% in April, in the total value of home loans being arranged. The average value of mortgages completed by it's customers increased by more than 7%, to £150,556 in the same period.
The late spring surge means that the average value of loans completed by AWD Moneyextra over the past five months reached £140,893, compared with £126,908 between January and May 2005.
AWD’s figures mirror those from the Building Societies Association (BSA), which announced that building society advances were up, year-on-year. Gross advances amounted to £4.613m in May 2006, compared with £3.528m in May 2005, and approvals were £5,454m in May 2006, up on £3,836m in May 2005.
Adrian Coles, director-general of the BSA, said: “It is reasonable to assume the housing market will be buoyant going into the summer. It has been widely predicted that the market will show signs of cooling, but this is not likely to happen until the autumn.”
James Carter, IFA at Twickenham-based Virtue Financial, said: “We are busy at the moment but put this down to the time of year. I certainly would not ascribe this to a public awareness of HIPs as there hasn’t been much publicity about it.”