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January lending at highest level in nine years
The mortgage lending market is proving robust, despite economic uncertainty and a shortage of housing
Mortgage lending reached an estimated £18.9 billion in January, according to the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML).
This is 6% lower than December’s lending total of £20 billion, but 2% higher than the £18.6 billion lent in January last year.
And it’s the highest lending total for the month of January since 2008 (£25.2 billion).
CML economist Mohammad Jamei said: “Overall mortgage lending continues to hold up pretty well, but we seem to have a twin-track market. Weakness in buy-to-let and home movers has been offset by an increase in first-time buyers and remortgage lending.
“A continuing acute shortage of homes being offered for sale is one aspect of a broken housing market, that looks unlikely to resolve in the near term.”
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Henry Woodcock, principal mortgage consultant at IRESS, added that he expected 2017 lending levels to be similar to last year: “With house hunters becoming more price sensitive during increased economic uncertainty, my expectation is for a similar year to 2016 in terms of transactions with perhaps a modest growth in gross lending.”