Mortgage approvals fell to a nine-month low in June, a further sign the housing market is losing momentum.
According to new figures from the Bank of England, mortgage approvals for house purchases fell from 65,109 in May to 64,684 in June.
This is the lowest figure since last September and around 4,000 lower than in January.
The Bank’s Money and Credit report showed that there was a slight uptick in the total number of mortgages approved to 122,765, largely due to a rise in remortgaging.
Approvals for remortgaging went up from 43,145 in May to 44,548 in June, taking the total value of remortgaging for the month up to £7.6 billion.
Mark Harris, chief executive of mortgage broker SPF Private Clients, said: “Net secured lending ticked up a little in June although lender appetite is far stronger than these figures suggest. With little upward pressure on interest rates, lenders continue to reduce their fixed-rate mortgages.
“HSBC was the latest lender to cut rates at the end of last week, resulting in a five-year fix pegged at just 1.59%. We expect to see plenty of action on the remortgaging front as borrowers move to take advantage of some of the cheapest rates ever.”
Jeremy Leaf, north London estate agent and a former RICS residential chairman, says: “Although house purchase approvals were little changed in June, we certainly would have expected them to be higher than in January, reflecting traditional spring housing market activity.
“However, bearing in mind many people were probably more concerned with the outcome of the election, numbers could have been much lower and on the high street we are certainly not expecting the market to fall off a cliff anytime soon.”
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