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Mortgage approvals dipped in January

Christina Hoghton
Written By:
Christina Hoghton
Posted:
Updated:
20/02/2020

Last year finished strongly for the mortgage market but approvals fell back slightly in the first month of 2020

Mortgage approvals dipped slightly by 1.8 per cent in January, compared to the “bumper” December, E.surv’s latest Mortgage Monitor has found.

According to the data, there were 66,002 residential mortgages approved during the first month of the decade, down from December’s figure of 66,253.

Small deposit borrowers increased their market share from 25.5 per cent to 26.7 per cent, amounting to 17,623 approvals.

Customers with large deposits decreased their share from 27.3 per cent to 25.5 per cent, suggesting a growth in mid-market borrowers. In total 47.8 per cent of mortgages went to mid-market customers, higher than the 47.2 per cent in December.

Richard Sexton, director at E.surv, said: “While the market fell slightly following the December bump, rumours of a Bank of England base rate cut appear to have had little appreciable impact on the mortgage market, with a strong performance among several key buyer groups in January.

“Existing homeowners benefited from low remortgage rates and were persuaded to switch to a new deal, while new buyers also swooped to seal low interest rates for their first purchase.”