Mortgage Lending Monthly High

Mortgage Lending Monthly High.

The Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) has released figures that show the mortgage lending total rose in July by £19.1bn, this was the highest monthly rise since 2008. This was 7% higher than June and 15% higher than the same point last year.

This was good news for the mortgage market after a slowdown in the earlier months of this year, which was being linked to new regulatory rules which made mortgage lenders perform more tougher checks on borrowers.

Caroline Offord an analyst for the CML said that despite the tougher lending criteria, the mortgage market remained robust. Ms Offord did say however, that the affordability checks could still start to affect the market.

Net mortgage lending reached £10.5bn in the first 6 months of the year, compared with the past 5 years where it barely managed to pass £10bn over 12 months this was a positive figure.

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Indeed, today Legal & Generals Mortgage Club, a network or mortgage lenders and independent mortgage brokers, of which we are a member to secure our clients exclusive deals, has suggested that mortgage lending could be close to setting the normal annual lending benchmark at £25bn per year.

Property prices have risen, mortgage lending had a slow down after the new Mortgage Market Review (MMR) rules started in April this year.  Suitability and affordability is now the base for any mortgage but with the added requirement that stress testing must take place with lenders checking whether you can still afford a mortgage even if rates rise by 3 or 4% pa.  This week a number of lenders have confirmed increases to the interest rates they use, usually up to 4% higher than current rates to ensure the borrowers will not get into trouble when rates rise.

This now appears to have settled mortgage market fears and as a result the first time buyer end of the market is seeing increased activity as competition for first time buyers increases with more lenders offering 95% loan to value mortgages.