Remortgaging continued to increase in August, according to new figures released today by the Council of Mortgage Lenders. With 34,100 loans taken out (worth £4.2 billion), both the volume and value were more than 30 per cent higher than August 2010.
House purchase lending also rose in August. There were 52,000 loans advanced (worth £7.9 billion), up from 48,700 (worth £7.2 billion) in July and from 51,000 (worth £7.7 billion) in August 2010.
House purchase lending is spread across both first-time buyers, and home movers and both contributed to the rise. The number of loans to first-time buyers rose 5 per cent both from last month and August last year, while the value rose by 4 per cent from July and a larger 9 per cent from August 2010. Home movers took out 33,000 loans in August (worth £5.5 billion), an 8 per cent increase (10 per cent by value) on July and up 1 per cent (2 per cent by value) from August 2010. Lending to both first-time buyers and home movers was at its highest for over a year.
Lending criteria for both groups in August showed little change from the previous months. First-time buyers continued to put down on average 20 per cent of their property’s value as a deposit and borrowed 3.20 times their income, slightly up from 3.17 times in July. Typical deposits for home movers stayed at 31 per cent for a second month but in August home movers on average paid 9.4 per cent of their income on mortgage interest payments – the lowest since monthly records began in 2002. This is likely to reflect the low interest rates currently available to borrowers with a large amount of equity, typically home movers.
96 per cent of first-time buyers in August took out a repayment mortgage, unchanged from July and out of 33,000 home movers, 82 per cent (26,900) did the same, up from 80 per cent in July. As existing first-time buyers themselves begin to move home or remortgage, the likelihood is that they will retain a preference for repayment mortgages which will increase the overall popularity of this type of business.
Paul Smee, director general of the CML, commented: “Even though it is impossible to ignore the knocks to confidence emanating from the Euro zone, August lending showed welcome signs of life. With those moving house experiencing a record low in the proportion of their income needed to pay their mortgage interest, it is clear that the low rate environment is a benefit to those with mortgages, even against the backdrop of the gloom in the wider economy.”
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