Six-year high in mortgage lending

Mortgage lending in the second quarter of 2014 was at its highest since 2008, statistics from the Bank of England show.

The latest data for April – June of this year saw gross mortgage advances reaching £51.5 billion.

That’s a rise of 9 per cent on the first three months of the year and 24 per cent higher than in quarter two 2013.

It was also the highest amount advanced in the second quarter of a year since the second quarter of 2008.

New commitments were £53.4 billion, an increase of 12 per cent compared with quarter two last year and again the highest since the same period in 2008.

Fixed rates have been the mortgage of choice for many and the proportion increased for the seventh consecutive quarter to 82 per cent of all mortgages – the highest proportion since 2007.

The number of new arrears cases (where the amount of arrears is 1.5 per cent or more of the borrower’s current loan balance) went down by 10.8  per cent to 24,770, the lowest quarterly number of new cases since the series began in 2007.

New cases of repossession totalled 5,728, a 26.5 per cent reduction from the second quarter of 2013.