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First-time Buyers

Mortgage lending rockets to highest level since 2007

Samantha Partington
Written By:
Samantha Partington
Posted:
Updated:
08/06/2021

Mortgage advances in Q1 hit their highest point in 14 years.

According to figures from the Bank of England, the value of gross mortgage advances in the first three months of 2021 was £83.3 bn, 26.5 per cent up on the first quarter (Q1) of 2020 and the highest level since 2007.

The proportion of mortgage deals with interest rates of less than  two per cent above the Bank Base Rate (the interest rate set by the Bank of England, currently 0.1 per cent) fell year-on-year by 13 per cent to 59 per cent, highlighting that although deals have started to get cheaper as competition has returned to the market, overall interest rates charged on mortgages remain higher than a year ago.

A fall of 4.1 percentage points in the share of mortgages advanced above 90 per cent loan to value (LTV) was noted by the Bank. That meant that just 1.1 per cent of all mortgages advanced in Q1 were above 90 per cent LTV, the lowest proportion since the Bank’s mortgage lending series began in 2007.

Mortgages lent to borrowers buying property accounted for just over 64 per cent of all lending in Q1, an increase of 17.3 percentage points compared to the same period last year. Residential remortgages declined year-on-year by 14 percentage points to 18 per cent, marking another record low for the series.

Meanwhile, mortgage arrears are on the rise, although the total number of mortgage accounts in the red due to missed payments represents less than one per cent of all UK mortgages (0.96 per cent).

Paul Stockwell, chief commercial officer at Gatehouse Bank, said: “There has been frenzied activity in the market with movers searching for larger homes and more outdoor space, while the extension of the stamp duty discount to the end of June added more fuel to the fire in the first quarter of this year.

“The biggest stamp duty savings run out in just a few weeks’ time, yet measures from other housing indices suggest the frantic competition for property continues unabated.

“While lending may fall from these current highs, we still expect it to be an incredibly busy summer for the housing market.”


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